When Shin-chan pushed open the door, Misae was sitting on the sofa folding clothes, while Hiroshi was lying nearby reading the paper.
"You're back?" Misae looked at him. "Weren't you supposed to stay overnight at school and come back tomorrow?"
"I'm not going anymore." Shin-chan set Shiro down.
Shiro shook out his fur and ran off toward the backyard.
"Not going anymore?" Hiroshi lowered the newspaper and sat up. "What do you mean?"
"It means I don't have to go anymore from now on." Shin-chan climbed onto the sofa and plopped himself down right on top of the neatly folded clothes.
Misae's hand froze for a second. She looked at the shirt he'd wrinkled, took a deep breath, and pulled it back out from under him.
"Why don't you have to go anymore? Did you get expelled?"
"No." Shin-chan shook his head. "Grandpa Third said I don't have to go to school anymore, and I don't have to do homework anymore either."
Hiroshi put the paper down completely and sat up straight. "Start from the beginning. What exactly happened?"
Shin-chan told them everything that had happened that day.
The genjutsu test. The Hokage's office. Grandpa Third saying he wanted to run some kind of experiment, that someone special would teach them from now on, and that they wouldn't need to go to school anymore.
After hearing him out, Hiroshi sat there in a daze for quite a while.
"So what you're saying is, Lord Hokage personally called you into his office and said your talent is way above other kids your age, so he's giving you private instruction?"
"More or less." Shin-chan thought about it. "He also promised me a box of chocolate sticks."
Hiroshi opened his mouth, then turned to look at Misae.
"Our Shin-chan's been noticed by Lord Hokage himself." Misae stopped folding the clothes, and there was no hiding the pride in her voice.
"He said I'm a genius." Shin-chan nodded.
Hiroshi went silent for a moment. "You? A genius?"
"Do I not look like one?"
Hiroshi looked him up and down, then shook his head. "No."
Misae set the folded clothes aside and patted the sofa. "Don't listen to him, Shin-chan. Mommy's proud of you."
Shin-chan blinked. "Then can I get another box of chocolate sticks?"
"No."
"Then what's the point of being proud?"
Misae's smile stiffened.
Hiroshi asked, "Did he say who you'd be studying under?"
"Someone called Yūhi Shinku, I think." Shin-chan tried hard to remember. "His name sounds a lot like Yūhi Kurenai's."
Hiroshi's mouth dropped open. "Yūhi Shinku? The chief instructor who trains genin and chūnin?"
"You know him, Dad?"
"I know the name. Pretty much everyone in Konoha does." Hiroshi's expression turned serious. "Normal people can't just get him to teach them."
"So he's really strong?"
"Really strong?" Hiroshi took a deep breath. "A lot of the people you saw in the Chūnin Exams before were taught by him. Only those who pass get to keep training under him."
Shin-chan thought about that. "Then if he teaches us, does that mean we'll become real ninja really fast?"
Hiroshi froze for a second, and then his eyes slowly lit up. "And once you're a ninja, you can take missions. Even D-rank missions pay a decent amount. C-rank pays even more—"
The more he talked, the more excited he got. He tossed the newspaper aside completely. "Shin-chan, if you become a ninja, you can start making money."
Shin-chan tilted his head. "What do I need money for?"
"Shin-chan, do you know how much house loan your dad still has to pay every month?"
Shin-chan shook his head.
"A lot." Hiroshi made a gesture. "You don't need to know the exact number. Just know that your dad still has thirty-two years left to pay it off."
"Thirty-two years?" Shin-chan blinked. "How old will you be then?"
"Very, very old." Hiroshi leaned forward a little. "But if you become a ninja and start taking missions, you'll get paid, right?"
"I guess so."
"Then if the two of us pay the mortgage together, won't it go way faster?" Hiroshi's eyes were shining more and more. "Think about it. If you do a bunch of missions every month, plus me, maybe we could pay it off in twenty years. Or fifteen."
The more he spoke, the more animated he became, counting on his fingers. "Then a few years later you become a chūnin, and chūnin missions pay way more than genin missions. Then a few more years later you become a jōnin…"
"Hiroshi," Misae called from the side.
Hiroshi didn't hear her and kept going. "And jōnin missions pay even more. One S-rank mission could—"
"Hiroshi!"
He finally looked up. "What?"
"What exactly are you planning?"
"I'm not planning anything." Hiroshi's voice immediately got weaker.
Shin-chan blinked. "Dad, are you saying you want me to help pay your mortgage?"
"I was just joking." Hiroshi scratched his head. "Just saying it casually. Casually."
Shin-chan slid off the sofa and started heading toward the backyard.
"I'm going to go play with Shiro."
"Wait a second." Hiroshi stopped him. "I wasn't finished."
"I already heard enough."
"How can you be done listening when I wasn't done talking?"
"Because I didn't want to hear the rest." Shin-chan didn't even turn around. "Mortgage this, mortgage that. I'm only five."
"That brat…" Hiroshi muttered as he watched the little red figure disappear down the hall.
Misae smiled and shook her head. "Honestly, joking like that with Shin-chan..."
"I just wanted to give him some motivation." Hiroshi lay back down on the sofa and picked up the newspaper again, flipping through a couple of pages.
Misae gathered up the last folded shirt and stacked it on top. "The way you sounded just now, it was like you were ready to use every yen he ever earns to pay off the mortgage. He's only five."
"So what? Ambition has nothing to do with age."
Misae looked at him, smiling. "Then what were you doing when you were five?"
Hiroshi froze, thought for a second, then said, "Catching fish in the river?"
Misae laughed again.
Hiroshi's face went a little red. "That's different. It's not like I had Yūhi Shinku teaching me back then."
"Exactly." Misae stood up and picked up the stack of clothes, heading for the bedroom. "So let Shin-chan figure things out at his own pace. Don't start panicking about making him earn money to pay off the mortgage."
"I'm not panicking. I just think—"
"You just think what?"
Hiroshi was quiet for a moment, and when he spoke again, his voice had grown softer.
"I think this kid's already way better than I ever was."
Misae stopped in the bedroom doorway and looked back at him.
"Isn't that a good thing?"
Hiroshi thought about it, then smiled.
"Yeah. I guess it is."
He lay back down on the sofa, picked the newspaper back up, flipped a couple more pages, then set it down again.
"Thirty-two years..." He sighed and stared at the ceiling. "If only I could strike it rich…"
From the hallway came Shin-chan's voice.
"Shiro, did you hear that? Dad wants me to help pay his mortgage."
"Woof woof!"
"Right? You think that's no good too."
The corner of Hiroshi's mouth twitched. "I can hear you, you know."
The hallway went quiet for a second.
"Shiro, let's talk quietly."
"Woof woof!"
Hiroshi sighed and pulled the newspaper over his face.
Forget it. He'd just pay it off himself, one slow step at a time.