Chapter 8

Yoruichi led Karma and Ailane into a room filled with cats. A room they were intimately familiar with, having frequently tried to hide from training by blending in as cats. After arriving at the center of the room, she had them stand in a circle depicting the clan emblem. Then, she utilized summoning jutsu to summon a blue leopard.

"You need some help, Yoruichi?" It asked.

"Shune, can you take us to meet the Feline Sages? My nephew and niece are ready to be tested for senjutsu." Yoruichi said while holding the hands of Ailane and Karma.

"Yes!" Shune shouted before vanishing with poof.

...

...

"I thought we would immediately be summoned immediately..." Karma complained.

"Well, it's not just one place. There are 6 parts to the Hunters Nest, where we're going. So there's obviously travel time between where Shune lives and where the Feline Sages live. The Central Lands where the Feline Sages live, the Pride Lands, home of the pumas and lions, the Shady Forest, home of the leopards and jaguars live, the Green Grasslands, where the cheetas and tigers live, the Frozen Trundra, where you can find the snow leopards, and the Great Mountain, housing the cougars. Of course, these places are also home to various other species of cats.

The sages will evaluate you to go to one of the lands, the one that's best suited for you. There, you'll learn the Sage Art, Sage Mode. This technique basically enhances everything about you. However, our clans have various different ones. The Pride Sage Mode gives an even bigger boost in physical power, and the Shady Sage Mode reduces your presence, boosting stealth capabilities. The Green Sage Mode boost speed and reaction time. Frozen Sage Mode grants a large boost to your chakra, meaning your ninjutsu will be stronger, and the Great Sage Mode enhances senses even more.

The last Sage Mode is Central Sage Mode, it varies for everyone, but basically if all several Feline Sages approve, you'll be given the option to learn a combination of their Sage Modes. This means you could potentially get a Central Sage Mode with multiple aspects even further enhanced than a normal Sage Mode. If you're curious how that stacks up against other Sage Modes taught by different summons, Central Sage Mode is superior if you have the approval of at least three Feline Sages, while the others are of similar level. Though, that also depends on your base strength too. Learning Sage Mode won't automatically make you ridiculously strong."

Ailane was about to ask another question when they all vanished from the room with a poof, appearing in a large grassy plain. In front of them stood a large red lion, a green jaguar, a golden tiger, a blue furry leopard, and a black cougar.

"So, these two are the ones you want us to evaluate, Yoruichi?" The lion asked.

"Yup, they're my nephew and niece. Both are very talented, and they're ready to begin learning Sage Mode."

"Hmmph! We'll see." Said the tiger, inspecting the twins. The other four like-wise began to inspect them. Before long the leopard raised its head.

"They're both suitable for Frozen Sage Mode." It stated simply. Afterwards it took a step back, allowing the others to continue their inspection. It wasn't long before the cougar also approved of them both, making Ailane giddy to have be learning Central Sage Mode.

Next, the jaguar and the tiger both approved of Byakuya. Lastly, after awhile the lion raised it hands and spoke, "I approve of the girl, though, she'll need a little more work." This shocked the trio. Karma naturally expected to be approved of by all of them. Even if he wasn't using his actual godly abilities and his bodily strength was limited, he was after all the cat God. Ailane didn't expect to be able to learn a three part Central Sage Mode, she expected her brother to learn the perfect one though. Yoruichi too, thought Karma would learn the perfect Central Sage Mode. However, when she thought about it, it did make sense. Karma almost never used physical strength to win spars, usually he utilized his claws and shunpo.

Karma sighed. If he really wanted to go through this life as an actual person he would have to just accept it. It wasn't like it would seriously affect him anyway, he only cared about the enhanced senses so he could perform the sixty four palms and make it his own.

Ailane was extremely happy since that meant she would be stronger in the future and she would have a superior Sage Mode. She was afraid of being completely left in the dust by her brother, and so she struggled to at least not fall too far behind. As long as she worked hard, she was confident in being able to support Karma in his goals and aspirations while achieving her own.

Next, the Sages huddled to debate which summon contract they would give the two resulting in Karma contracting the cats from the Green Grasslands and Ailane contracting the ones in the Pride Lands.

With that done, they were lead to different areas where they could become attuned to the specific type of natural energy they needed. Karma arrived at a waterfall where the natural energies of the four lands that he had the approval of mixed together forming a new type of natural energy. The tiger lied down after leading him there.

"My name is Rai. I will explain to you how to learn Sage Mode, so pay attention. First you need to learn to remain absolutely still so that you become one with nature. This will allow you to sense the natural energy that you will need to enter Sage Mode. You must take this natural energy and mix it with your chakra, blending them together with perfect balance. If you put take in too much natural energy, you'll turn to stone, if you take in to little, you will permanently take up your feline form. Every day from now on, I will reverse summon you after you attend the academy to practice until you learn. Shune will remain with Yoruichi tomorrow, so I can learn the timing." It said.

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Authors Note: Time-skip incoming, I wanna hurry and get to Chunin Exams. For those curious Toads are defense and snakes are defense piercing.