Messing with Kakashi aside I wasn't actually beiful as whether it was retive to the normal time it took to learn sage mode or in general this training shouldn't take very long at all. Maybe a month in total if Kakashi doesn't sck off. pared to the years it normally would take this was ridiculously fast. In peaceful times like now a month was also quite a short amount of time to grow to such a degree. I also wasn't being generous with my timeframe either as I truly believed that with his talent and my serious help Kakashi could do it in this amount of time.-

  His eyebrow twitched at my reply but he just sighed before asking "So what is the step now that I "see" natural energy?"

  "Now you o learn how to tell it apart from the rest of the energies in the air. Close you eyes aend your spiritual perception out and I'll make this step particurly easy." I anded and he obeyed.

  I nodded pleased to see that this past week had beely what he o get a better uanding of his own spiritual energy. I doubt he even realized that he had improved so mu the field as his spiritual energy extended smoothly out from his body in a radius of several feet in all dires. I casually transformed the deural energy flowing through his spiritual energy into various shapes and symbols and Kakashi focused his spiritual energy on that part of the energy. Whearted trying to exert his own trol ouff though I didn't hesitate to shoot a spark of lightning release at him making him yelp from the sudden pain.-

  "I told you to focus on the energy, not try and mess with it haphazardly." I scolded him sternly. "You barely mao perceive the stuff after I purposefully made it stand out much less reached the level necessary to start trolling it. Try something like that again and I might let you face the sequences without stopping you." I said firmly.

  "I'm sorry. I got ahead of myself, it won't happen again." he said sincerely.

  "Good, nain while I increase the difficulty." I anded and he did.

  Increasing the difficulty in this case was making less obvious disturbances in the energy and having him try and spot them.

  Once I was satisfied with his accuracy at that I decreased the disturbances even further f him to try even harder. Metaphorically speaking I started out with an elephant and was slowly redug it down to a flea. The first was naturally easier to see but the st was much much harder. I had learnt the method that Katsuyu and the other two maje regions used to train their sages from the slug sage herself and found it.... ineffit. My reason for saying so was that they settled food enough" natural energy sensing before moving on but that was making the process of learning harder.-

  Even Jiraiya who had years of training and experieh sage mode hadn't "perfected" it yet and couldn't sense ane uhey made it obvious or he actively tried to sehe natural energy around him. I know because otherwise he would have spotted me the mome me as my state while not obvious wasn't very hiddeher. Thing was though that in order to get the sort of trol o have "perfect" sage mode you also o be able to passively seural energy without really trying but the toads clearly failed to tell him this or didn't realize this was the case.-

  To put it bluntly Jiraiya's sage mode was horribly performed because of his faulty training. I refused to make that mistake for Kakashi and so I was f his spiritual perception to grow so acute he'll be able to sense and trol natural energy in an instant. It took five days of training for him to grasp natural energy with his spiritual senses with ease at the low low price of being sleep deprived aally weary.-

  "Your first step towards sage mode is now plete, take the wo days to rest up and recover." I said not tired at all uhe half zombie Kakashi.

  I only hree hours of sleep to be fully refreshed after all but after five days of barely getting five hours of sleep the silver haired man was dead on his feet tired. Was I being a bit cruel with this training schedule? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Thanks to this training even while dead tired Kakashi could immediately seural energy in a precise manner, just imagine how he'd do while fully rested.-

  The wo days went by quietly after that and then Kakashi showed up at my home yet again and I tested him by having a tiny prick of natural energy buzz by his ear and he swat at it absentmindedly. It took him only a moment to realize that it was me messing with him as the buzz didn't vanish.-

  "Is that really necessary?" he asked pining.

  "Absolutely! The fact it's also amusing is just an added bonus." I say with a grin.

  "Fine fine, I know better than tue at this point. What's todays torture?" he asked half joking half not.

  "The week will be spent forcibly boosting your bodies tolerao natural energy. Not going to lie it's going to suck hard for you." I said holy.

  "And if we didn't force the issue?" he asked hoping for a way out.

  "It'd take you about half a year to get to the point you don't immediately risk turning to stone when drawing natural energy into your body. Then another six months to get to a point where I'd allow you to attempt sage mode." I said bluntly.

  "Torture it is then." he said with a sigh.

  "Gd you uand, now follow me bay meditation chamber." I say before heading back to the crystal chamber.

  He followed behi couldn't help but sigh in relief once we got there. I gave him a knowing look and he just chuckled embarrassed.

  "After getting used to being surrounded by so muatural energy spending two days in the rest of the vilge that cks the stuff in more than minute quantities is a discerting feeling I know. I've had my entire life to get used to that feeling, you've had barely two days. It'll pass in time I promise." I say reassuringly.