Time flew. In the blink of an eye, two years had passed.
It was now September of Konoha Year 52.
Over those two years, the Ninja World had remained largely stable.
The Five Great Ninja Villages were focused on development. Well, all except the Mist Village. They were busy fighting among themselves.
The smaller ninja villages were expanding their businesses too. Some promoted tourism; others worked on construction.
Even Akatsuki, the Ninja World's number one terrorist organization, seemed to have vanished. At least, none of the Five Great Ninja Villages had discovered what they were doing.
In Konoha, Taiichi's Senjutsu promotion plan had also gone remarkably well.
In the first year, the village selected fifty participants for him.
They ranged from little kids who had just entered the Ninja Academy to elderly ninjas who had already retired, covering every stage of a ninja's life.
The results were encouraging, but also worrying.
Of the fifty participants, only five managed to sense Natural Energy during that year's training. Only one could ultimately
barely maintain Sage Mode.
Compared with the records of the Three Great Sage Regions, that result was undoubtedly much better. But a success rate of just one in fifty also showed that Taiichi's three disciples really were extraordinarily gifted.
Fortunately, the year had not gone to waste. Training data from fifty people, even if most of it documented failure, gave Taiichi plenty of inspiration.
So in the second year, a hundred people—including the original fifty—trained in Sage Mode. This time, the results were heartening. Forty-two managed to sense Natural Energy, and eleven completed their Senjutsu training.
That was a tremendous success. A one-in-ten success rate would leave any of the sage regions so far behind they could not even see them.
More importantly, Sage Mode 3.0 had eliminated the risk