Sarada…

I was there when you were born

I remember holding you before your mother and feeling a connection that I had not felt since my family was eliminated…I love your mom but with you it was a different kind of love.

Hearing your first words and teaching you how to walk with your mother was one of the happiest moments of my life. Watching you fall and get back up with a huge red bow on your head that your mother instead you wear and seeing you smile when you finally walked into my arms was a moment that I will never forget.

Then I was called away on an important mission, one that you will never know about or understand. I know that it was best because I am one of the only few that can protect our village after all the damage that I had caused to it and every single person living there.

I am truly sorry that I, your father, may as well be a stranger to you.

I'm sorry that I wasn't there to take you to the academy on your first day like my father did for me.

I'm sorry I wasn't there to teach you how to throw a kunai the way that my mother offered to do for me many times.

I'm sorry I wasn't there to teach you the jutsu's and way of our clan the way both my father and brother taught me…in their own ways.

I'm sorry for every birthday, holiday and every important moment in your life that I have missed.

I'm sorry I wasn't there to help guide you through life the way that I was supposed to do.

Sarada, I cannot turn back time and give you the twelve years that you deserve with both your mother and me. I also can never give you the answers to the questions that you have probably had your entire life and most certainly deserve an answer to. But I hope that one day we can get to a place where we can have a relationship and you can at least get to know the better side of me. I hope that you will someday understand that everything I have done in my adult life served the purpose of protecting not just the village but you and your mother because you are both precious to me and I could not bear the thought of losing either one of you. I hope you can forgive me…but if you can't, I understand. The only thing that I will ever ask of you is to not make the same mistakes that I have made by letting anger and hatred guide your actions and outlook on life. I hope that you are a strong, positive, kind-hearted person like your mother with lots of happiness and joy in your life. But knowing your mother…...I know that's exactly who you are.

I hope to see you soon but if not then I'll see you later.