In Uchiha Yuan's previous perception, the Dragon Vein was a unique form of chakra.
An Lushan had used the Dragon Vein's power to achieve rapid regeneration, and Uchiha Yuan wanted to find out whether this regenerative ability came from the Dragon Vein itself or from some special method An Lushan employed.
This shadow clone of Uchiha Yuan carried most of his chakra. Yuan's idea was that, if the collection of Dragon Vein energy went smoothly, the clone could bring the chakra back to Konoha. If not, he would just give up.
As it turned out, the process went more smoothly than expected. After An Lushan's death, all puppets lost functionality. Uchiha Yuan's clone easily gathered the Dragon Vein energy that remained in most of Rōran's puppets, sealed it into a scroll, and headed for the Land of Fire.
After Namikaze Minato's group returned to Konoha via the Flying Thunder God technique, they went directly to report to the Third Hokage.
Although everyone's memories had been sealed, the Dragon Vein had also been sealed, so the matter was undoubtedly resolved perfectly.
Upon hearing that the issue was resolved, the Third Hokage nodded in satisfaction, then turned to them and said: "You've all worked hard. Take a few days off. After the Chūnin Exams conclude, we'll arrange a new mission for you."
"Thank you, Lord Hokage," everyone said in unison.
After leaving the Hokage building, Uchiha Yuan contacted Hyuga Asana and Yamanaka Kagetsu. Since returning to the village, the three hadn't seen each other.
A dozen minutes later, the Uchiha Yuan squad gathered in front of Ichiraku Ramen.
"Tsk tsk, Asana, why'd you turn into such a goody-two-shoes as soon as you got back to the village?" Kagetsu teased, eyeing Asana's proper attire.
"The Hyuga Clan's rules are like this; I don't really have a choice. Yuan, was your mission successful?" she asked, turning to Uchiha Yuan.
"I'm not sure. Our memories of the mission were sealed, but..."
"But what?"
"Nothing. Asana, I might need your help with some experiments later. Will you be free? Can you leave the Hyuga compound?"
"I should be able to. The main family isn't restricting me anymore, given Lord Hokage and Orochimaru-sensei's influence."
"That's good. If I need your help, I'll let you know."
Unconsciously, a week had passed, and the Chūnin Exams had reached the final combat stage.
Worth noting: two days earlier, while training, Uchiha Yuan had used his Sharingan and triggered the backdoor he left, restoring his memory.
That afternoon, his shadow clone also returned with the sealing scroll.
Once the shadow clone was released, its memories returned to the main body. From the clone's memories, Yuan learned that the Dragon Vein chakra stored in the scroll was substantial—about two to three times the amount of chakra a standard Kage-level ninja possessed.
Uchiha Yuan opened the sealing scroll and extracted a small portion of the chakra. As he had previously observed, Dragon Vein chakra indeed possessed a unique quality.
Next, Yuan went to the Forest of Death. Because of the Chūnin Exams, many birds and beasts there were injured.
Yuan gathered the wounded animals and injected a small portion of Dragon Vein chakra into one dying bird.
After absorbing the chakra, the bird's injuries began to heal, but its mental state remained weak and sluggish.
Yuan found it odd. The physical injuries were healed, so why hadn't life functions returned?
He then drew out another portion of Dragon Vein chakra and injected it into a different wounded animal, this time activating his Sharingan to observe the chakra flow inside the creature.
With the Sharingan's help, Yuan saw that the chakra was circulating inside the animal, but there were no signs of life functions returning.
Later, Yuan called Hyuga Asana to assist, and together they experimented on several animals with Dragon Vein chakra. The results were all the same.
It proved that the Dragon Vein chakra did, as Yuan suspected, have rapid healing capabilities—but only for the body, not the consciousness.
In short, the body could be revived, but the animals entered a state of suspended animation. In human terms, they'd be in a vegetative state.
Yuan was disappointed. If that's all the chakra could do, it was a bit too lackluster.
Just as Yuan was about to give up and toss out the revived animals, he reached for the first bird he injected with chakra—and saw its wings move.
The bird opened its eyes, looking around in confusion, and then flapped its wings in panic upon seeing Yuan, trying to escape.
Of course, Yuan didn't let it get away. He teleported to block it and had Hyuga Asana check for any abnormalities inside the bird.
Asana activated her Byakugan and confirmed: the bird's internals hadn't changed much, except that the Dragon Vein chakra had completely disappeared.
Now, every part of the bird's body had traces of Dragon Vein chakra—meaning it had been fully absorbed.
Yuan had Asana use Healing Jutsu to stabilize the bird. This time, the bird didn't try to flee but simply curled up timidly.
"Yuan, don't you think it's strange? This bird seems unusually intelligent."
Yuan was stunned. Indeed—it was just a bird. Why did it seem so smart?
He then ran various tests on the bird and concluded that its intelligence exceeded that of most large mammals.
This bird was a common gray magpie, widely seen both in his previous life and in the Naruto world.
Gray magpies rank low in intelligence—even lower than reptiles, let alone mammals.
A creature like this, driven purely by instinct, shouldn't have this level of intelligence. Also, when Yuan found the bird, it had no chakra and couldn't have been a summoning beast.
In that case, the bird's changes must have come from the Dragon Vein chakra.
Uchiha Yuan was overjoyed, and now eagerly looked forward to seeing what changes might occur in the other animals.
(To Be Continued...)