Author's Note - I have only seen the movie once so forgive me and let me know politely if I've made any mistakes in spelling, names, minute details, etc. For example, at first I had been calling them the Fab 5 instead of Furious until I saw a commercial!

Shipping Warning: This story will probably be somewhat shippy of Po and Tigress (hey, don't go all "different species!" on me now :P). However, at the moment, I don't intend for it to be anymore than the possibility and/or looming tension between them. But, you never know where typing fingers will lead so I make no promises. I also will most likely make implications of Viper/Mantis!

Disclaimer: I will say this once for the entire story. I do not claim ownership of Kung Fu Panda or the characters therein all of which are property of DreamWorks. I only liked the movie so much that my imagination cried out for MORE! Any characters and/or story plots that I do add are my own creations based on age old ideas tossed around for centuries in storytelling only with new twists to fit the Kung Fu Panda world :) Therefore, do not come to me claiming I stole your idea seeing as every idea is recycled and there is never just one person at one time thinking of the possibilty of something. Now if I make it word for word with same original character names, I promise it's just a completely FREAKY coincidence! I am kidding, of course :D

There was a story Tigress wasn't telling. She kept it behind her mighty prowess, unwilling to show it to anyone. Po's arrival had irked her from the beginning, but more than that, it had brought back to life the memories she had tried for so long to bury. Although Po was now a regular member of the Furious 5 and the official dragon warrior, his presence still made it harder for her to re-bury those surfaced recollections.

At first, Tigress' change in demeanor was easily passed off as her frustration with Po and his inability at first to be the dragon warrior. However, she had bowed first in respect towards him and now held no ill will towards the giant panda. Thus, she now had nothing to mask her irritation when he sometimes was around while her bad memories the strongest.

It didn't take long for others of the group to question Tigress' random moments of hostility. Although she would always apologize, they feared what she was keeping secret. After all, they had seen the rage Tai-Lung had released after many years of keeping his emotions towards Master Shifu bottled in. And Master Shifu had hid his pain for years as well. Now that he was at peace, Shifu especially could sense the disturbance Tigress was hiding and wanted to see that it was set right.

Unfortunately, it had taken Po to bring Shifu peace, but it seemed to him Po was the thing bringing unrest to Tigress. He wished he could already be understanding of the dilemma as he knew Oogway would have been, but Shifu still had much more training to do before he could be as wise as Oogway had been in understanding deep matters of the psych.

"Should I summon Tigress and ask her outright or wait awhile longer and hope she comes to me?" Shifu debated as he stood beneath the sacred peach tree in the light of the rising dawn. He could feel there was a shift in the weather taking place somewhere and the valley would be filled with clouds and rain in the matter of a day or two. Shifu decided he should take the peaceful weather and silence now to meditate. He turned and was about to sit down when he heard a loud roar from inside the temple.

It was Tigress. Shifu immediately began a hurried trek back to the living quarters of his students. They were all gathered in the hall outside of the kitchen. "Tigress!" Viper cried out, bringing the tiger back to her senses.

She backed away from Po, who was cowered in fear, his hands in front of his face as a guard against her fury. "I...I...my apologies, Po," Tigress said with what seemed to be sincerity. She noticed their master watching her as well. "And my apologies to you, Master," she bowed, "for not honoring your lessons."

Po was the first to break the silence as he straightened himself back up, "Oh, it's, uh, it's okay, Tigress. I know I can get a little grumpy in the morning time, and, well, not as grumpy as my mom used to get. Let me tell you, she would..."

"That is enough, Po," Shifu spoke authoritatively. "You have offered Tigress your forgiveness and the score is settled. Let us begin our morning training."

The rest of the morning flowed smoothly enough. The group ran through there usual schedule of obstacle course training, meditation, breakfast, chores, meditation again and then lunch. Tigress remained as silent as she could throughout the morning and Po remained as far away as he could. Both of his students' disharmony with one another bothered Shifu even more. The unbalance could bring irreparable damage to the group's unity in battle.

Shifu summoned Viper to him during the group's usual after lunch quiet session. "You wish to speak to me, Master?" She slithered into the Jade Palace where Shifu awaited, his back turned to her.

"Do you know why I have summoned you?" Shifu took the opportunity to test his student.

There was a moment of silence before Viper answered. "You wish to speak to me of Tigress."

"Very good," Shifu turned around to face the snake.

"With respect, Master," Viper spoke slowly and cautiously, "It is not my place to speak of Tigress without her knowing."

"I don't ask for a betrayal of trust, Viper," Shifu said with a smile, glad of her answer. "I would like to know exactly what happened this morning and why it has caused disharmony between two of my pupils."

"Po was in the kitchen this morning, snacking away a nightmare I believe, when Tigress came in for the same reason and was taken off guard by him. Tigress did not want to show her weakness in front of Po and lashed out instead," Viper sighed, her fork tongue hissing as she did. "At least, this is the explanation she gave me. She said she is sorry for such reckless pride as it wasn't Po's fault he was there too."

"I see," Shifu paced a few steps back and forth as he thought. "What is unusual about this situation to you, Viper."

"Well, Master, Tigress has seemed more and more irritated by Po's being here by the day. And yet she claims nothing against him. I do not understand it. Today is the first time she took any real action towards him, letting her reflexes send her into an attack against him. Before you arrived, she had chased him out of the kitchen and up against the wall in the hallway."

Shifu's eyes widened at the detail of the encounter, but they quickly returned to normal. "Nevertheless, this is not what is unusual, as Tigress has claimed a reason for today's even odder behavior than of late. This is the only time she has lashed out, and it could be easily true she was taken off guard by Po's presence in a time of vulnerability," Shifu gave Tigress the benefit of the doubt in the matter, more perplexed now by something else. "Tigress is not perfect as are none of us."

"So you believe she really was lashing out because of the effects of a nightmare?" Viper asked in confusion. "But this does not explain her other annoyances."

"No, Viper," Shifu sighed, "it does not. But only Tigress can explain them to us. It is indeed a pressing matter that I must handle but there is still the unusualness unnamed from Po and Tigress' encounter with one another this morning," he looked at her very deliberately, waiting to see if she were wise enough to make the connection, but seeing this revelation was beyond her at the moment. "Tigress and Po both claimed to have had a nightmare."

"And both were trying to solve it in the same manner," Viper said with sudden inspiration.

"Which means we have two dilemmas upon our hand. Harmony versus disharmony, the two entities at war between Po and Tigress." Shifu brought his hands from behind his back where they had been folded together. He brought one to his chin in thought. "And the possibility their harmonious nightmares are born of the same deep warning inside of them. There are no accidents. I must speak with them both about their nightmares tonight. Until then, I must test their conscious harmony. Gather the others and meet me in the courtyard for one on one combat training followed immediately by double team combat training."

"Yes, master," Viper bowed her head and the top part of her body and then slithered off to alert the others.

"Their conscious disharmony may betray their subconscious harmony," Shifu sighed again as he blew out the candles surrounding him.

A/N (cont.)

Please bare with me as I try to get into the swing of each character's voice. I usually try not to ever go too out of character and try to build based on what is given and then expand believably from there.