"Him?" Following the direction of Chi's pointing finger, Zhong Yan turned his gaze toward the silver-gray-haired boy.
The moment he laid eyes on him, Zhong Yan's expression froze.
Likewise, the boy's gaze held deep emotion as he looked at him.
The air fell completely silent in that instant.
Chi, witnessing this, didn't know what to do and chose to remain silent as well.
After a long moment, Zhong Yan finally came to his senses, his voice trembling slightly as he said, "You... you are..."
He had an answer clearly in his heart, yet he could hardly believe it.
Could something like this truly happen in this world?
"Long time no see... no, for the you of this timeline, I suppose this is our first meeting. After all, at this point in time, I'm still just a one-year-old kid, right... Father."
Hearing the boy call him that, Zhong Yan's doubts were confirmed, and he couldn't help but step forward, carefully examining the young man.
"You... how did you get here?" Once he was sure the boy was his son, Zhong Ling, Zhong Yan's voice brimmed with shock.
Zhong Ling smiled faintly in response, though it was tinged with bitterness. "Father, some things can't be explained in just a few words. I think... there's a more direct way for us to understand each other."
With that, Zhong Ling lifted his head and locked eyes with Zhong Yan, who immediately understood.
The next second, both activated their Sharingan. In an instant, Zhong Yan's vision became hazy, and a torrent of memories flooded into his mind.
They were Zhong Ling's memories—from his earliest childhood to his growth, and all he experienced as he matured.
The realism was overwhelming. It felt as though Zhong Yan had lived through Zhong Ling's life himself, though only a few breaths had passed.
When the memory stream ended, his consciousness returned to reality.
He now stood before a fully grown Zhong Ling—and for a moment, he was utterly speechless.
Especially the final memory fragment—it was so incredible, he could hardly believe his own eyes.
In the future—more than a decade from now—New Eridu was destroyed. And the one responsible was the Exaltists.
They had created a perfected serum that allowed the entire Ethereal horde to emerge from the Hollow. Wherever they went, they left only death behind. No military force could stand against them—they were crushed like ants.
Even more terrifying, the lord of the Ethereal horde also emerged from the Hollow. Under its oppressive might, New Eridu—already on the brink—collapsed completely.
At that time, Zhong Yan led the Akatsuki in a desperate struggle.
The power of the Rinnegan was indeed immense—so much so that even the Ethereal lord couldn't match him.
But against a wave of Ethereals vast enough to rival all of Hollow Zero, even he found himself overwhelmed.
In the end, every member of Akatsuki perished. His three children and his wife also fell to the Ethereal tide. Only he, along with a few others, survived.
Logically, with the Ethereal horde and the Exaltists eliminated, those who survived could rebuild New Eridu with time.
But having paid such a price, how could Zhong Yan bear to lose everything?
So, he made a choice—to unleash the most powerful technique of the Rinnegan.
Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique.
Through this technique, all who had died were brought back to life—except for him. He became the lone sacrifice.
New Eridu was rebuilt through everyone's united efforts, and it was as though nothing had changed—except they had lost one person.
After Zhong Yan's death, his three children each awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. Among them, Zhong Lan's Sharingan held the power of time-space traversal—but the cost was permanent blindness.
This side effect couldn't be cured, not even with the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. One could only imagine the resolve it took for him to blind himself in order to help his most trusted brother change the past.
"Why... didn't you transplant my Rinnegan?" Zhong Yan asked. He clearly remembered—before dying, he had told Zhong Ling to transplant his eyes.
As the eldest son, the pillar of the family, he would be far more capable of protecting their mother and siblings with the Rinnegan.
Yet he hadn't done it. And the memory hadn't shown the exact reason.
"You'd already sacrificed so much... and you still wanted me to take your eyes? How could I do that?" Zhong Ling responded with a bitter smile.
It wasn't that he didn't want the Rinnegan's power—but that it belonged to his father. Even if forced, he could never bring himself to take them.
Zhong Yan couldn't find words as he looked at Zhong Ling's expression.
In Zhong Ling's memories, he had been a very stern father. But that version of him and the one standing here now felt fundamentally different. Perhaps that was the nature of perspective.
Incidentally, because Zhong Ling had come from the future, many mysteries could be answered through him—such as the location of the Exaltists' base.
In the future, the Exaltists believed victory was assured and carelessly revealed their base's location. That misstep gave rise to a faint sliver of hope.
And that hope... was Zhong Ling, who crossed time itself.
"Father." The scene returned to the present as Zhong Ling suddenly reached out and grasped Zhong Yan's hand, snapping him out of thought.
Zhong Yan looked up to see an expression of unwavering determination on his son's face—so much so that even he was moved.
"You once told me, as the eldest brother, I should take responsibility for the entire family. I've always tried to live up to what you expected of me. And now, I believe I've become the person you hoped for."
"I don't know if changing the past will alter the future I've lived, but I will still do it—because what I carry... is the hope of everyone. Xi and Lan, our three mothers, and those who built deep bonds with you... they're all waiting for me to bring you back."
"Father, let's do this together. I'll prove to you that I, Zhong Ling, will never dishonor the name of Uchiha."