Most of the Clan Has Something Wrong with Their Heads!

At last, Yun Yan seemed to suddenly come to a realization, as if he had only just grasped the situation:

"So I'm this unpopular in Konoha!?"

Izumi pressed a hand to her forehead, looking utterly helpless.

Kakashi, standing before him, was equally speechless. He could not help but tease Yun Yan a little:

"Yun Yan, it's not that you're unpopular in Konoha. It's that in Konoha... you have no friends at all!"

Izumi nodded, seemingly in complete agreement with Kakashi:

"That does seem to be the case.

Yun Yan, I don't know what things are like outside the clan, but at least within the clan, you have no friends. I can say that for certain."

Ordinarily, Izumi tearing him down like that should have been rather embarrassing for Yun Yan. But who was Yun Yan? He was thick-skinned and carefree.

After giving it some thought, he immediately decided it did not matter and came up with his own unique theory:

"It's fine. So what if I don't have any friends?

Only the weak complain about their environment. The strong create their own environment. I have no friends because I don't think those people are worth befriending. Only those I think highly of are qualified to be my friends!"

As he spoke, Yun Yan stepped forward and patted Kakashi on the shoulder.

"Kakashi, when you have time, introduce me to that guy Might Guy, will you? We're all friends, aren't we?"

"Guy?" Kakashi had clearly not expected that. "Of course I can introduce you to him. Guy really is a good person, it's just..."

"I know his personality is a little peculiar. Konoha's number one taijutsu master—I've heard about him before. But that doesn't stop us from becoming friends.

Like I just said, only those I approve of are worth befriending. In my eyes, Guy is one of those people."

At first thought, especially when he considered Guy's usual personality and image, Kakashi found himself rather speechless.

But after thinking it over more carefully, especially recalling Guy's sincerity and his powerful taijutsu, Kakashi had to admit that Guy truly was someone worth befriending for Yun Yan.

That was, provided Yun Yan could put up with Guy's odd personality.

Scratching his head, Kakashi could only agree for the time being.

"All right. When I have time, I'll introduce you two.

But not now. I've been delayed long enough. I need to head back immediately."

Yun Yan understood and patted Kakashi on the shoulder again.

"I understand. After all, it can't be easy spending all day around that old man Sarutobi."

Hearing Yun Yan openly call the Third Hokage "that old man Sarutobi," Izumi was startled. She then looked at Kakashi apologetically, with a trace of unease.

Kakashi did not care in the slightest. He said goodbye to Yun Yan, nodded to Izumi, and vanished with the Body Flicker Technique.

Yun Yan watched in the direction Kakashi had left, falling silent.

After several seconds of silence, Yun Yan suddenly said to Izumi beside him:

"Izumi, Kakashi's a pretty good guy. If I'm not around someday and you happen to run into trouble, then if you really have no other options, you can go to Kakashi. He'll definitely help you."

Izumi nodded and committed it to memory.

With that said, Yun Yan no longer lingered outside. He turned and walked into the house.

"Come on, Izumi. I'll tell you where Kakashi lives and how to contact him."

Izumi nodded and obediently followed Yun Yan inside.

And so, the matter was completely settled.

After this matter ended, whether it was Yun Yan's side or Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzō's side, everyone honestly kept quiet for a while.

With rare peace at hand, and since he was still on vacation, Yun Yan stayed home and studied the Flying Thunder God Technique he had just acquired.

As soon as he began studying it, he discovered that the Flying Thunder God Technique was anything but simple.

Sure enough, making progress in the realm of space was no ordinary task.

After all, it involved space-time. This was no simple matter; such mysterious and unfathomable power was beyond human reach.

Through his research, Yun Yan discovered that the Flying Thunder God Technique truly depended heavily on talent. It was not something that could be mastered through hard work alone. One had to possess the aptitude for it.

Only those with aptitude in spatial techniques had the possibility of learning the Flying Thunder God Technique.

Mind you, merely having the possibility of learning it did not mean one would definitely succeed.

And if one lacked talent in spatial techniques, then one might as well forget it and honestly train some other ninjutsu.

So the question was, did Yun Yan possess that aptitude?

Heh. For Yun Yan, whether he had talent in spatial techniques was not important at all, because... he had a cheat!

With the help of that cheat, Yun Yan studied the Flying Thunder God Technique for a week and truly managed to uncover some of its secrets.

One week was not enough for Yun Yan to officially get started, but he had at least found the way in.

As long as he kept training along that line of feeling, Yun Yan had a premonition that he would definitely master the Flying Thunder God Technique!

When that happened, his mobility and speed would increase enormously, and his strength would likely rise to another level as well!

It was truly exciting. Just thinking about it made him happy.

However, another week of vacation had passed. Three weeks had now gone by, and three quarters of Yun Yan's month-long leave had already been used up.

His vacation balance was about to run out. He would have to return to work in another week, which was indeed rather irritating.

Besides that irritation, there was another matter that put him in a bad mood, and it was Izumi who reminded Yun Yan about it.

That morning at breakfast, Izumi voiced her concern to Yun Yan:

"Yun Yan, it's been three weeks since you came back. In all that time, you still haven't met with the clan head, have you? You haven't reported back to the clan either?"

Hearing that, Yun Yan stopped moving his chopsticks.

"Go see the clan head? Report back to the clan?

Heh, I'm practically invisible in the Uchiha Clan. Who in the whole clan cares about me? Who pays attention to me? Who even knows me?

I'm back, so why should I go see him? Why should I report back? Should I go stick my warm face against someone else's cold ass?

No."

Yun Yan's attitude did not surprise Izumi.

Izumi sighed, but she could not help trying to persuade him.

"Yun Yan, it's an unspoken rule of the clan. Whenever clan members return from missions outside, they always report their situation to the clan.

You don't have to clearly report every detail or the entire course of the mission. At the very least, you should let the clan know that you've returned.

Besides, ordinary chunin and genin naturally have no standing to meet the clan head.

But you are a jonin, and you were carrying out a long-term mission as one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. Now that you've returned, you should at least meet with the clan head and show some respect."

Yun Yan looked at Izumi helplessly.

First of all, Izumi was thinking of him. There was no doubt about that.

Izumi knew that he received no attention at all within the Uchiha Clan. She believed things could not continue this way. He was already an elite jonin, and it was inevitable that he would make a name for himself in the future. It was truly inconvenient for him to remain so isolated within the clan.

Second... after thinking it over carefully, Izumi's words did make some sense, at least in terms of social conduct.

It was like someone who had gone away on a work trip for years and finally returned home after finishing the assignment, only to remain silent and never go out to see anyone. Their relatives and friends would not even know they had come back.

That was somewhat hard to justify.

But the problem was...

At that thought, Yun Yan's expression turned troubled.

In Yun Yan's eyes, the people of the Uchiha Clan—or rather, his own clansmen—all had something wrong with their heads!

And the closer they were to the clan's core, the higher their position in the clan, the worse their condition became.

Conversely, those minor figures outside the clan's core, or those alienated by the clan's core, had much milder problems. Some even had perfectly sound minds!

For example, Izumi, who stood before Yun Yan, was an Uchiha clansman with absolutely nothing wrong with her head.

It might sound a little disrespectful to say so, but that was the truth.

Yun Yan genuinely did not want to deal with those Uchiha clansmen who had something wrong with their heads—and whose condition was quite serious.

Izumi wanted him to meet the head of the Uchiha Clan...

Good grief, he was the clan head. That meant he was definitely one of the people with something wrong with his head, and he was deeply entangled in all sorts of trouble—from Konoha's upper ranks down to the Uchiha Clan's internal affairs. The clan head could not possibly avoid it.

It could be said that the head of the Uchiha Clan was currently the most troublesome and difficult person in Konoha to deal with.

Then there was Izumi wanting him to report back to the clan.

The clan head's problem might not be quite as severe, but those clansmen who held power within the clan and had influence were absolutely prime examples of people with something wrong with their heads.

Just how bad was it?

It was so bad that Yun Yan did not even want to communicate with them—he could not communicate with them at all!