They soon agreed on a time: meet at the Konoha Village entrance tomorrow. The rest were dismissed to go back and prepare their belongings.
Kano hummed a tune on her way home. Having sung many times now, she no longer felt shy or blushed; she could sing anytime, anywhere.
"I'm home."
"Welcome home."
Her mother, Yoshino, was already preparing dinner. Shikamaru and Shikaku hadn't returned yet.
"How was today's mission? Did it go smoothly?"
"Today was a babysitting mission; it went well. Tomorrow I'm going on a C-rank mission and will be traveling far, so I need to pack some Ninja tools tonight."
"Oh, traveling! Is it dangerous? How long will you be gone? A girl must protect herself when she's away."
Saying this, Yoshino was about to put down what she was doing to help Kano pack.
"No, no, no! I'll do it myself, I'll do it myself."
There's a kind of weight called a mother's love. If she let her mother pack, the luggage tomorrow would probably be so heavy that even Naruto couldn't walk more than a few steps carrying it.
"I'm back."
Kano had already changed and was preparing to bathe when Shikamaru returned from his mission.
"Hehe, our class is going on a C-rank mission tomorrow! Jealous?"
"Why do we only get to do those incredibly boring missions."
Kano ignored Shikamaru's complaints and entered the bathroom with her change of clothes. She had only said it to make him jealous.
"I'm home. Is Kano back?"
Her father, Shikaku, also returned, and the first thing he did was ask for Kano.
"My sister just went into the bathroom."
"Then we'll talk when she comes out." Shikaku clearly had something to discuss with Kano, but since she was bathing, he could only talk to Shikamaru first. "How is your progress with your sister's secret technique?"
"Dad, give me a break. That secret technique has 38 hand signs! How could I possibly learn it in such a short time?"
"Look at your sister..." Shikaku originally wanted to lecture Shikamaru, but then he remembered he hadn't learned it either and fell silent. "Well, I can't blame you. This technique is indeed very exquisite and obscure; even I have barely scratched the surface."
Shikamaru grumbled inwardly. *Yeah right, keep bragging. If you had learned it, why would you ask for my sister the moment you walked in?*
"I'm done washing. Who's next?"
Kano walked out of the bathroom drying her wet hair, and as soon as she emerged, she heard Shikaku and Shikamaru discussing the Shadow Deer Technique.
"Shikamaru, you go first. I'm going to discuss something with your sister."
Shikaku shooed Shikamaru away and had Kano sit next to him.
"What's wrong, Dad? Is there something else about the technique you don't understand?"
"I remember this technique can be divided into three parts. The third part, preservation, is the simplest. The second part looks to me like a Space-Time Ninjutsu; you can't learn it without talent. See if you can optimize this part out?"
"Huh?"
"Specifically, delete the second part where the shadows are exchanged. That way, the difficulty of the first part, shadow extraction, will also decrease."
"Ah..."