"Sage Techniques? What is that? It sounds quite powerful." Midori Inuzuka scratched her head and asked in confusion.
"I don't know," Guy replied briefly.
Ensui also shook her head, indicating his lack of knowledge in this area.
"I know a bit. Sensei told me about it; it's called Sage Mode," Kakashi said after thinking for a moment.
Nagasawa nodded, saying, "Well, calling Sage Technique Sage Mode wasn't exactly wrong."
"In the world, there exists a ubiquitous energy known as natural energy. The key to Sage Mode is absorbing this natural energy and moulding it into Senjutsu Chakra, allowing one to enter Sage Mode. Sage Techniques used Senjutsu Chakra and are more powerful than ordinary Ninjutsu.
At the same time, Sage Mode comes with many powerful abilities, such as enhanced recovery, physical strength, and perception."
"That sounds amazing! Can I learn it?" Midori Inuzuka asked eagerly.
"I don't think you're cut out for it at the moment," Nagasawa replied.
"What?!" Midori Inuzuka looked disappointed.
"One of the prerequisites for learning Sage Mode is having an abundant Chakra, and you're not exactly good in that area, right?" Nagasawa explained slowly.
Sage Mode was not something that could be learned by talent alone, so being able to learn Sage Mode just went to say how talented one was.
Not everyone could learn Sage Mode; you must have a certain level of Chakra, which was a massive amount of Chakra for ordinary people's standard.
Although Midori Inuzuka had a strong physique and a decent amount of Chakra, she didn't meet the requirement to learn Sage Mode.
Among the four, the only one who met the standards to learn Sage Mode was Kakashi, who had been transplanted with Secondary Hashirama Cells.
"My Chakra is just a bit short. Does that mean only Kakashi who meets the criteria among us?" Midori Inuzuka inquired.
If Guy didn't open Eight Gates, his Chakra was basically the same as Midori. As for Ensui, he had slightly more Chakra, but not by a large margin.
"From the current circumstances, that's more or less how it is," Nagasawa nodded.
However, Nagasawa didn't bring up Sage Mode just for Kakashi. In fact, Breathing Style Sage Mode that Nagasawa developed has significant differences in learning process compared to the Sage Modes of the Three Sage Regions.
In Breathing Style Sage Mode, Breathing Styles was crucial. It was not the same as the Breathing Styles that the Special Combat Division learned; although related, they were not identical.
In Breathing Style Sage Mode, each Breathing Style corresponded to different natural energy.
To make it easier to train people, Nagasawa divided the Breathing Style Sage Mode into two parts: Breathing Technique and Sage Mode.
By starting with Breathing training, they could strengthen their body, increase their Chakra, and enhance their sensitivity to natural energy to prepare for the next phase.
Once their Chakra reached the standard, they could start the next phase of the training, and because their foundation was solid thanks to the previous training, the next phase of the training wouldn't take that much time.
"However, the Sage Mode I want you to learn is the one I develop on my own, so it's different from the regular Sage Mode. Therefore, even though you haven't reached the standard, you can still start a portion of the training and then start the advanced training once you've met the standard."
Due to their lack of understanding about Sage Mode, they didn't realize how crazy a self-developed Sage Mode was. Nonetheless, they seemed quite motivated.
Nagasawa conjured a shadow clone and took Kakashi to a slightly more remote location to avoid interference.
"Kakashi can start the second phase from the get go. It's slightly different from what you guys are learning, so I isolate him so that you don't get in each other's way.," Nagasawa explained briefly.
The preliminary training involved basic breathing techniques without absorbing any natural energy, so they just focused on sensing it. Later, these basic techniques could be developed into the actual Breathing Styles.
Nagasawa gave a thorough explanation and demonstration to Midori, Ensui, and Guy.
Finally, they were to practice on their own while Nagasawa provided corrections.
On Kakashi's end, Nagasawa's shadow clone directly taught him Thunder Breathing Sage Mode because Kakashi met the standard.
"It's so difficult; I didn't feel those small dots of light you mentioned at all, but I did manage to inhale a lot of air," Midori Inuzuka complained.
Bam!
Nagasawa quickly knocked Midori Inuzuka firmly and said calmly, "It would be strange if you can actually sense natural energy from the get-go."
"Unlike most techniques, Sage Mode requires persistence perseverance for success. If you want to succeed, you have to keep this up for years."
"Unless you're one in a million genius, you won't be able to grasp Sage Mode that quickly."
"Since there's one in a million, why can't that person be me?" Midori Inuzuka retorted.
Despite her head being swollen after getting smacked by Nagasawa, she still didn't lear her lesson.
Nagasawa placed some Sun Breathing Senjutsu Chakra on his hand and placed it on Midori Inuzuka's shoulder, injecting the Senjutsu Chakra into her body.
"Aakkk! It's so hot!" Midori Inuzuka suddenly felt bursts of intense flames surging within her body, burning every inch of her skin and every cell inside her body. She writhed in pain on the ground.
Nagasawa shook his head, picked up Midori Inuzuka, and dispelled the Sun Breathing Senjutsu Chakra within her body as he said, "It seems you're not the one in a million genius."
What he did was similar to how White Snake Sage injected Senjutsu Chakra into those who took his trial. However, the White Snake Sage's method was more advanced.
If one could withstand the Senjutsu Chakra that the White Snake Sage injected into their body, it meant they had learned Sage Mode without the need to training.
If Midori Inuzuka had withstood Nagasawa's Sun Breath energy just now, it would have indicated that she was talented in Sage Technique had the potential to learn Sun Breathing Sage Mode.
Guy and Ensui ignored Midori Inuzuka and focused on practicing Sage Mode.
Ensui saw Sage Mode as an opportunity to change his shortcoming in terms of powerful Ninjutsu.
Guy, on the other hand, was afraid that he couldn't learn it, so she had to put in twelve times the effort.
After all, his talent in Ninjutsu was below average. A Ninjutsu that Kakashi could learn from just a glance often took him a lot of effort to learn.
Nagasawa mentioned that Sage Mode could strengthen the user's physical strength. So, maybe he could open the Seventh Gate with much less backlash on his body using Sage Mode.