Chapter Text
From her place in the corner of her father’s hospital room, Sarada watched as her parents said their last goodbyes to each other.
Uncle Naruto was standing next to her, his face uncharacteristically solemn. Both of them had already said their piece before stepping aside to give her mother some privacy with her father.
Papa…
Sarada remembers a distant time when she resented him for leaving her and mama behind. She had so many questions and no one willing to answer them, leaving her own imagination to spiral out of control. Eventually, she came to understand why her papa had left, why her parents kept her in the dark, but even now, especially now, she wishes they could all go back and make up for all the loss time.
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“Papa!” two-year-old Sarada exclaims happily, as her short, chubby legs ran across the tatami mats when she sees her papa at the doorway.
“Sarada,” he calls out to her, before bending down to lift her up in his arms. “Were you good today?”
“Mhmm!” she replies with a wide grin, as she buries her face in her papa’s warm chest.
Just then, her mama walks into the room. “Welcome home, anata,” she tells him with a warm smile.
“Aa,” her papa replies back, softly. “I’m home.”
“Hey mom... Does dad even care about us?” Sarada asks one day. Her birthday was coming up in a few days and once again, her father wouldn't be able to make it home. It's been several years since she last saw him; she finds it difficult to even remember his face these days. It's all a blur.
Her mother frowns, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Now, why would you say that Sarada?”
“He’s never home!” she replies back, sounding harsher than she intended. “It's been 5 years! Why won’t he come back home to us? Is he even going to come back at all?”
“Oh, Sarada,” her mother says, bending down to engulf her daughter in a hug. There's a slight shake in her mother's voice, and immediately Sarada feels guilty for raising her voice.
"Mom, I..." Sarada begins.
“Sarada, I promise you. It’s because he cares about us that he can’t come home. Not yet. But I promise, you’ll understand one day.”
“Oi, what are you doing Sarada?”
Whipping her head around, she comes face to face with her two teammates. “Shhh!” she places a finger on her lips, glaring at Boruto. “Be quiet or they’ll hear you,” she whispers before turning her head back around.
The three genin were currently hiding behind a tree, a few yards away from the hospital entrance.
Leaning over her shoulder, Mitsuki asks curiously, “What are you looking at?”
“My parents,” she replies back. Indeed, standing in front of the entrance were her parents. Only two weeks had passed since the big fight with Kaguya’s descendant and her papa was finally able to return home for good. Since then, she and her papa have been spending a lot of time together.
Her mother insisted that they spend more time together to make up for all the lost time, which they both happily agreed, as she missed her papa just as much as (she later realized) he had missed her. Sarada didn’t think it was fair for her to hog her father, so she told (or well, demanded, really) her father to go take her mother on a date. A real one. That wasn’t at Ichiraku’s. And without Uncle Naruto. (Of course her father scoffed at her at that. “That idiot invites himself.”)
Nonetheless, he agreed to her proposal. His daughter was not the only woman in his life that he had missed dearly while he was away on his travels, after all. He had meant to spent more time with Sakura after his return, but they both agreed Sarada deserved to spend some time with her father first.
“What about them?” Boruto asks, peering over from her other shoulder. “They’re just talking.”
“No, they’re flirting,” Sarada corrects them. Boruto wrinkles his nose.
“Oh, ew. Why on Earth are you–-” however before he could finish, Sarada jabs an elbow into his side. “Be quiet,” she tells him again, when she sees her father glance towards their direction.
“My papa has been away for years. They deserve to flirt a little,” Sarada whispers back, her eyes watching as her father hands her mother the flowers that she and Aunt Ino helped him pick out. She watches as her mother blushes, shyly accepting them, while her father becomes amusingly bashful.
Watching the scene unfold before her, Sarada is unable to stop the smile from her face.
He's home.
Sarada snaps out of her thoughts when she hears her mother let out a soft gasp. Both her and Uncle Naruto rush over to the bed. “Anata…” her mama whispers, voice hoarse as she tries to hold back her tears. Her hands, wrinkled with age, grasp her father’s larger, frail ones.
The corner of his lips curl upward, when he sees her tears. “Annoying…” her father responds, his dark eyes brimming with love and affection as he looks as his wife. And then, taking in one last, quiet breath, his eyes fell closed for the final time.
Sarada watches as her mother’s shoulders shake, quiet sobs racking through her body, as her hand tightens around her papa’s limp one.
She can feel tears running down her own cheeks, but she doesn’t move to wipe them away.
He’s gone. Papa’s gone.
For a man as stoic as her papa was, he had been filled with so much love. Whether he was home next to them or faraway, in some remote dimension and whether she realized it or not, she was loved.
No, the time they lost would never return and neither would her papa, but no matter where he went, no matter how far, he would always be her Papa and she would always be his daughter, always, always—
“I didn’t think I would live past sixteen,” her father tells her one day. “I didn’t think someone like me deserved to be happy.”
“Are you, papa?” Sarada asks, as she looks at her feet. They are sitting outside on the veranda, enjoying the quiet autumn evening. Her mother had fallen asleep a while earlier and was inside. “Are you happy?”
He is silent for a few seconds before answering softly. “Yes.”
A few seconds go by, before he continues. “I’m sorry for not being there to watch you grow up.”
Her head jerks up. “No–-”
He shakes his head. “When we brought you into this world, I promised I would do everything in my power to protect you. To protect our family,” he says.
“I’d like to think I did,” he muses to himself.
“You did!” Sarada exclaims.
Her father lets out a wry smile. “Did I? Even though I’m such a failure as a husband and father…”
“You did your best, papa!” she tells him, eyes brimming with tears. “You did your best to protect us… to protect me… even though I…” Even though I hated you for being gone. Even though I said all those cruel things to you.
Her father lets out an amused huff. “You’re just like your mother,” he says, leaning over to wipe away a trailing tear with his thumb. “Always crying…”
“I am not!” Sarada grumbles, as she quickly wipes away her tears with the back of her hand.
Her father lets out a quiet chuckle, but says nothing else. Peaceful silence envelops them once more until Sarada asks him, “Hey papa... Do you ever wish we could turn back time?”
There were so much lost time between them. For the 13 years that she’s been alive, more than 10 was spent not knowing who her father was. If only they could go back and…
Her father considers for a few seconds before answering,“No.”
Sarada turns to look at him, curious. “Why not?”
“I regret not being there to watch you grow up, but I don’t regret leaving to protect you and your mother,” he says. “The time we lost can never be returned, but looking to the past is not how one should live.”
I know that better than anyone else, he thinks wryly.
Then, he glances over at her with a small, teasing smirk, and asks, “Besides, do we not have time now?”
Sarada finally smiles at that. “Yes, papa.” Yes, we do.
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ーまた今度な、パパ。
—until next time, papa.