Konoha, reported by the Fourth Hokage at the start.

Chapter 116 Ink Mimicry

"Let's leave first, there was quite a commotion just now."

Li Yao created a shadow clone, summoned the Black Iron Giant Eagle, and carried Sarutobi Tenju and his wife into the Black Iron Giant Eagle's belly. Then, he flapped his wings and flew high towards the direction of Poisonous Snake Island.

Inside the Black Iron Giant Eagle's belly, Li Yao's hair, which had stabilized the space of the Death Gate acupoint, returned to its original black color.

Only his face is a bit too mature, but it's okay, at least I don't have to worry about dying at any time.

Mito Uzumaki sealed too much chakra in the scroll.

After sealing the Death Gate acupoint space, there was still excess chakra, which was converted into Wood Release chakra to nourish the cells and restore their lost life potential.

Li Yao controlled the Black Iron Giant Eagle to create several holes on both sides of its belly, allowing the light inside to shine through.

He searched through Sarutobi Tensuke and his wife's belongings, mainly looking for any letters or other documents.

No, the way information was transmitted in the ninja world was not so simple.

The only things that caught Li Yao's eye when they were finally found were the blank scroll on the female ninja's body and a magical calligraphy brush.

What makes it so magical is that the brush bristles were dry, and the woman didn't have anything like an ink bottle on her person.

So how did she paint the large bird in ink wash style?

It wasn't until Li Yao infused the copied Super Beast Imitation Drawing chakra into the brush and the brush bristles condensed into black ink that he realized how the ink for the Super Beast Imitation Drawing ninjutsu was produced.

"What's the principle behind it?"

Li Yao was a little curious and carefully examined the brush in his hand. There were spell patterns engraved on the brush. He had passed through these spell patterns when he inputted chakra before.

"Could it be a sealing technique with the same hand seals?"

After thinking for a moment, Li Yao once again infused the brush with the Super Beast Imitation Painting Chakra, sensing the process of the chakra being transformed into ink again after passing through the un-engraved technique patterns on the brush.

"I see!"

Li Yao understood. Just as Water Release chakra is transformed into water, the Super Beast Imitation Painting chakra he copied also needed to be transformed into ink through the jutsu patterns on the brush.

Having learned about the transformation process of the technique patterns, Li Yao repeated the chakra input several times. Then, relying on his absolute control over chakra, he eliminated the need for a brush and directly condensed a ball of ink in his palm.

With ink painting in hand, all that's missing is to paint a large bird.

Li Yao opened a blank scroll and, without using a brush, directly manipulated the condensed ink to form a flat eagle in the air, then printed it directly onto the blank scroll.

Just like a photocopier, it reproduces a standing eagle on a blank roll, making it look incredibly lifelike.

"not bad!"

Li Yao nodded and smiled slightly; his sense of painting was quite good now.

These were all forged when weaving the eagle with black iron chains.

At this point, the Super Beast Imitation Drawing ninjutsu was basically completed.

The size of the eagle drawn on the blank scroll, or its flight speed, depends entirely on how much chakra Li Yao injects into it.

With a thought, Li Yao injected a small ball of chakra directly into the ink eagle painted on the scroll.

With the infusion of chakra, the eagle in the painting seemed to transform from a two-dimensional animal into a three-dimensional one, flying off the scroll.

An eagle the size of a rooster gently flapped its wings and landed in front of Li Yao.

"Go, stay here and keep watch."

Li Yao opened a gap in the belly of the Black Iron Giant Eagle, allowing the Ink Eagle to crawl out.

The ink-wash eagle that had gone out remained flying in the same spot, its gaze fixed on what was behind it.

Inside the belly of the Black Iron Giant Eagle, Li Yao closed his eyes, and immediately the vision of the ink-wash eagle entered his mind.

"No wonder this female ninja was able to keep an eye on me from outside the chakra sensing range."

"You're looking too far ahead!"

Li Yao remarked that the ink-wash eagle's eyesight was exactly the same as, or even better than, those of eagles in the wild, and it could see the eyebrows of people seven or eight kilometers away, or even ten kilometers away.

"Very well, now it's mine."

Li Yao was a little happy to have acquired another useful ninjutsu.

The ink-wash eagle remained stationary, watching its back and surroundings to see if any ninjas were pursuing it. If any ninjas did approach, the ink-wash eagle would alert Li Yao.

Because his consciousness was still integrated with the ink eagle, Li Yao could instantly share the ink eagle's vision and see its world, no matter how far away they were.

"I wonder if this woman from Konoha can do what he did?"

A thought flashed through Li Yao's mind, but he immediately shook his head, thinking, "Who cares?"

He continued drawing an eagle on a blank scroll, then infused it with chakra, summoning an ink eagle.

After several attempts, Li Yao understood why he had to use a blank scroll to draw and then inject chakra to complete the Super Beast Imitation Drawing ninjutsu.

The blank scroll is used to stabilize the shape of the eagle, and at the same time, it is to use the shape of the eagle drawn to infuse the ink eagle with the relevant attributes of eagles in nature.

In fact, this attribute is mainly based on the caster's will, but the will is very vague.

Only when the drawn eagle has a concrete image and is given relevant attributes will it be more stable.

To put it bluntly, it's due to insufficient control over chakra and unclear input of will.

Unable to precisely control the ink painting in the void, and to inject chakra and willpower to condense the ink eagle's chakra control power at the moment of completion.

That's why it's necessary to use a brush to paint on scroll paper that can store and transmit chakra to temporarily stabilize the image, and then inject chakra to shape and add attributes to the animals in the painting, thus creating ink-wash animals.

This is difficult for others, but it is very easy for Li Yao, who has absolute control over chakra.

With a thought, Li Yao manipulated the ink to form a two-dimensional image of an eagle in the air, and then directly injected chakra into it.

In an instant, the flat ink-wash eagle image in the air seemed to come alive, bulging, coalescing, and expanding into a real ink-wash eagle.

From this point on, Li Yao's own Super Beast Imitation Drawing Ninjutsu was completed.

This is the terrifying talent of having absolute control over chakra in learning and improving ninjutsu.

"Try other object properties besides animals!"

Suddenly, Li Yao had a thought. He manipulated the ink in the air to condense the shape of a spear. Then, looking at the ink spear, he thought that it was a hard metal spear. He then channeled this will into the ink spear through his chakra.

The Super Beast Imitation Painting Ninjutsu was completed, but the ink spear remained unchanged, or rather, it didn't need to change, because what Li Yao had initially condensed was the ink spear.

He just wanted to see if he could give the ink-painting spear real spear attributes by using the casting principle of the Super Beast Imitation Painting Ninjutsu.

Li Yao reached out and grasped the ink-wash spear in mid-air. Instantly, a sense of weight came from his palm. He raised his eyebrows slightly, feeling the weight.

He then picked up a kunai that he had found nearby and tapped it on the ink-painted spear.

"Zheng..."

A pleasant metallic clanging sound rang out. Looking at the ink-painted spear in his hand, Li Yao tossed it around, feeling its metallic texture, and smiled.

Sure enough, he was right.

The reason why there are fewer ninjas who use Super Beast Imitation Drawing, unlike other basic elemental ninjas such as Water Release, lies in a key principle of Super Beast Imitation Drawing: infusing the drawn form with will, making it possess a certain degree of self-awareness like a real animal.

This step is very difficult; no matter how much you study, it won't help someone without talent.

Therefore, many super beast imitation ninjas do not create an infinite number of ink-wash animals. Instead, they have determined a few animal forms as fixed ink-wash animals through long-term practice.

It's not that drawing something will bring it to life.

The key lies in instilling spiritual will.

Without the infusion of matching spiritual will, the ink-wash animals painted lack spirituality; they are merely a solidified pool of ink, devoid of any special abilities.

In the original work, Sai was never able to draw the "Tiger Staring" tiger, which possessed powerful sealing abilities.

This is why the infused will doesn't match the artwork.

However, what was difficult for other ninjas using the Super Beast Imitation Drawing Ninjutsu to instill their will was very easy for Li Yao.

Because his consciousness is fused with his chakra.

He can easily infuse his thoughts and will into ink paintings through chakra, creating the ink animals he desires.

When he wanted to conjure a long spear made of ink and wash.

The metallic texture, sharpness, and sturdiness of the ink spear were clearly infused into it along with his consciousness fused into his chakra, thus giving the ink spear the properties of a real metal spear and truly turning it into a metal spear.

This is a Super Beast Imitation Drawing Ninjutsu that only Li Yao, whose consciousness is integrated with chakra, can achieve.

"Then... since the ink spear can be successfully created, then the ink shuriken, kunai, and ink shield, etc., can also be condensed."

Li Yao thought to himself, "In this way, the effectiveness of the Super Beast Imitation Drawing ninjutsu will be greatly enhanced."

"This is no longer a super beast pseudo-painting, but a myriad of pseudo-paintings. It can not only condense ink-wash animals, but also ink-wash metals and other substances."

"Let's call it Ink Mimicry Ninjutsu from now on, it's easy to understand."

Li Yao smiled inwardly and renamed the improved Super Beast Imitation Drawing Ninjutsu.

(End of this chapter)