Characters/Pairings: Karura, Temari, Gaara
Author's Note: This is an AU in which Karura survived the sealing; Gaara's still a jinchuuriki.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Temari finds herself rubbing the back of her sobbing brother and can't be more grateful when she hears that familiar voice. "Temari, what's going on?"
Karura's been away on a mission for about a week; when Temari looks up and sees her mother, Karura looks tired, her clothes dusty and travel-stained. She's shifting her fan across her shoulders, her eyes noticeably narrowed.
"Kaasan." Temari smiles a little for her mother, then goes back to rubbing Gaara's back. "Gaara's being bullied again."
What she feels when she sees that familiar gleam enter Karura's eye, far from sympathy for Gaara or gladness that her mother is back, is complete and utter terror. Oh, not again. "Is it the same little monsters as before?"
Warily, Temari nods.
Karura leans down and puts her arms around them both. "Darlings, go home. Kaasan's got work to do."
She pulls out her fan as she walks away.
-0-
"Otousama?" Temari pokes her head into the Kazekage's office when she and Gaara get back to the compound.
"Yes, Temari?" The Kazekage doesn't look up from his paperwork.
"Kaasan's home." Temari pauses to lick her dry lips. "She's beating up little kids again."
"The ones who always bully Gaara?"
"Yes."
"Let her, then."