The history of the Ryūen has been lost for ages among the members of the clan now being replaced by legends. The most known and famous legend among the clan members is the story of Akuma Ryūen. A fearsome man of the Ryūen clan who roamed the lands battling any who accepted his challenges and defeating all; human or not. The current members of the Ryūen clan carry with them the tale of how Akuma defeated the mightiest beast besides the Demons; a dragon. They say he battle lasted for a whole year until Akuma walked away with the dragon’s tail in his hands as his reward. They say he had a grand night devouring the tail of the beast, and afterwards went through a transformation. This transformation allowed him to call on the dragon’s power and create a spirit dragon to aid him in battle. He returned home to the village as a champion and a hero and was made the elder of the clan. He passed on his power to the generations after him and thus, the clan gained the power to create the spirit dragons.  

The true past of the Ryūen clan is not as interesting as the legends make it seem. The first user of the Spirit Dragon was in fact Akuma Ryūen, but he did not defeat a dragon and eat it to gain the ability to materialize a Spirit Dragon. In fact, the Spirit Dragon was achieved when Akuma begun studying Senjutsu. By using nature chakra, in one-year Akuma developed a special type of chakra which he called spirit chakra. He then developed a technique that was opposite of the absorbing technique that Senjutsu users used to absorb nature chakra. By releasing his spirit chakra from his body and molding it, he created an image of the dragon from the Ryūen legends. He then became esteemed by his fellow clan members and became known as the Dragon Caller by many. It then was found out when he had a child that his special spirit chakra could be passed down allowing the future generation of Ryūen to be able to manifest a spirit dragon as well. This was how the Ryūen clan truly gained the ability to call on their inner dragons.

The Ryūen clan is a nomadic clan. Although, tensions about leadership, and fearsome battles took place that destroyed the clan from the inside. As a result, the already nomadic members went their separate ways, and the Ryūen clan became no more. Still though, the bloodline lives on as the separated members went on to live their own lives passing down their power to their children who did the same. Now today, the Ryūen clan lives on in individuals scattered throughout the shinobi world.