Chapter 112: From a Grey Magpie to a Silver Falcon

Ryo's Clone was gone three days later, when reaching Konoha's camp. Ryo received the scroll with the Ryumyaku's Chakra and couldn't wait to start his research.

After a clone disappears, its memories return to the main body. From these memories, Ryo realized that the amount of Chakra sealed within the scroll was small compared to that within the Ryumyaku itself. It was about about two to three times as much as the Chakra of a regular Kage.

Ryo undid the seal on the scroll and extracted a small amount of the Ryumyaku's Chakra. Like he had observed before, it was made out of a special Chakra and some Natural Energy.

Ryo then tried to inject the Ryumyaku's Chakra into a dying bird. After the bird absorbed the Charka, its injuries gradually healed, but it was still half-dead.

Ryo used more of the Ryumyaku's Chakra, injecting it into the bird. Then he opened his Sharingan and watched its flow within the bird's body.

With the Sharingan, Ryo discovered that the Ryumyaku's Chakra was circulating within the bird's body. However, the bird did not show any signs of life.

Over the following few days, Ryo conducted the same experiments on various animals. Every time, he reached the same result. His research hit a wall.

The Ryumyaku's Chakra did indeed have the quick healing effect that Ryo expected. But if it only could only heal and not stop death, then it is what he was looking for.

To put it simply, the dying animals were being "saved", on the surface, but they remained inva vegetative state.

This disappointed Ryo, who was expecting a bit more than just fast healing.

He was about to give and throw the corpses out, when he passed by the bird that was his 1st subject, and its wings actually fluttered.

Then, the bird's eyes opened, and it looked around in confusion. When it saw Ryo, it was scared, flapped its wings and wanted to escape.

Of course, Ryo wasn't letting the bird fly away anytime soon. He used a ribbon of Lightning Chakra to catch the bird and constrict its movements, and let his mind enter its body.

The bird's body showed no changed, but the Ryumyaku's Chakra disappeared. Then, Ryo confirmed said Chakra's presence within every part of the bird's body, which meant that it was completely assimilated by the small animal.

Ryo's mind withdrew from the bird's body and used [Healing] to save it. After being healed, the bird didn't try to escape, just shrinking back and looking a little scared.

With that, Ryo came to a realization: this bird is learning rather quickly! How can a bird be so smart?

So he conducted various tests on it. With them, he determined that the bird had a higher IQ than large mammals.

The bird was on ordinary gray magpie, the kind one could spot all over the world Ryo was in.

A gray magpie's IQ should be lower than that of lizard, let alone large mammals. Usually, gray magpies are creature of instinct that shouldn't have such IQ. Ryo was also sure that this wasn't a summoned animal.

With that possibility omitted, the bird's IQ could only be the result of its exposure to the Ryumyaku's Chakra.

Ryo was extremely excited, looking forward to the changes that should occur to the other animals. In a few days, however, Ryo's excitement was toned down.

Ryo actually conducted experiments on a total of five animals, including the magpie. But eventually, only the gray magpies and a hare survived, with the later's IQ not changing.

After going out to throw the other dead animals, Ryo examined the hare. Unlike the magpie, it didn't have the Ryumyaku's Chakra left within its body, making it nothing different from an ordinary hare.

After he released the animal, Ryo continued to conduct research on other dying animals. Like before, he injected the Ryumyaku's Chakra within their body. However, this time, he made sure that the amount of Chakra used is proportional to their body mass.

Kushina very curious about Ryo how went out of his way to find dying animals, but she was held off of him by Minato.

Minato thought that Ryo was working on a medical Ninjutu. Before him, Tsunade also often looked for animals for her research.

And Looking at Ryo, Minato saw that it looked as if he was on the verge of making a breakthrough. Of course, he didn't want Kushina to interfere with that.

However, Kushina wasn't the type to listen to persuasion, and the more Minato insisted on keeping her from going in, the more curious she was. Ryo was her treasured apprentice, so why shouldn't she see him?

With that in mind, Kushina snuck into Ryo's tent as he was struggling with the Gray Magpie.

After absorbing the Ryumyaku's Chakra, the magpie's IQ shot through the roof, and Ryo discovered that it could refine Chakra, a propriety that's usually unique to summoned beasts.

This ability made Ryo more interested in this gray magpie.

The changes occurring to the bird were not limited to that! Its body slowly grew; its beak an claws changed shape; it became more aggressive, and all the feathers on its body began to fall off and grow again, silvery-white this time.

In a few days, it turned into a bird that's two meters long wing to wing, looking more like a falcon than a magpie. (Translator Note: 2 Meters= 6 ft 6.7 inches).

The main cause behind these transformations was the Ryumyaku's power. A few days ago, the gray magpie found Ryo experimenting with other animals, and it kept pleading, as if it wanted more of it.

At first, Ryo was reluctant, but when it found that the bird could refine Chakra, he stopped hesitating. Over the following few days, he injected the bird with nearly a 3rd of what he had in the scroll.

This helped the bird complete its transformation, and the gray magpie turned into an incredibly intelligent Silver Falcon. So Ryo decided to try and teach it speech.

It was at that moment that Kushina snuck in. She stood their surprised watching Ryo try to talk to a silvery-white bird.

"Ryo, what are you doing!?"

Kushina's voice startled Ryo, as he was too immersed in teaching the bird speech.

Ryo was preparing to explain, when he heard the bird: "Ryo, what are you doing?!"

The magpie's voice was feminine, crisp and very pleasing. The words were clear, as if it had been talking for so long.

"Ryo, what's that summoned beast?" Kushina asked with some surprise.

"Ryo, what's that summoned beast?" the Magpie continued to imitate Kushina.

Kushina found it to be interesting, that the bird in Ryo's tent was able to imitate her speech.