"Xia Yan, I never imagined you'd already come this far."
Night had fallen. Inside Xia Yan's new house, Shōma Senju and Xia Yan sat together in the living room.
Shōma Senju had actually arrived long ago. They had been brought out of the shelter early that morning.
What had happened last night was unforgettable for all of Konoha, but it had left an even deeper impression on Shōma Senju.
In his youth, he had seen the Nine-Tails go berserk, and he had also seen how Hashirama Senju had put it in its place.
Now, he seemed to have witnessed it all again.
Only everything had changed. The one who had accomplished all this was not Hashirama Senju, but the young man he had personally raised, who embodied almost everything about the First and Second Hokage!
During the evacuation, he had seen the summoning beast Xia Yan summoned and watched Xia Yan use Earth Release to block a Tailed Beast Bomb.
He had also witnessed Xia Yan summon that towering Giant Tree and heard the Nine-Tails' roar, filled with apprehension.
He knew nothing of what happened afterward, because they had all been taken into the shelter. But he desperately wanted to find out exactly what had happened next.
That was why, after leaving the shelter that day, he had immediately gone to Xia Yan's house.
Senju Renka and her daughter, who lived in Xia Yan's house, had returned with him. Neither of them had much combat strength, after all, so they had naturally been sent to the shelter too.
But Xia Yan was not home. Clearly, last night's events had left this Anbu Captain no time to rest.
Shōma Senju had therefore simply waited at Xia Yan's house and arranged for people to investigate everything that had happened last night.
He