Rasa's POV


Rasa stepped into his bedroom, dreading another night of holding his wife through endless nightmares, only to be followed in by one of his SAND guards. He arched a fine brow, wondering why Izumi, one of his most trusted SAND captains was kneeling before him. Izumi bowed low, forehead touching the ground before his feet.

"Speak." He ordered curtly, wondering what was so important that his old teammate would disturb him in his bedchamber, yet so unrelated to official matters that she would actually approach him in his bedchamber.

"Kazekage-sama" she began, "This one has found a possible cause and solution for Karura-sama's sleeping problems.

Suddenly, Rasa felt much more alert. Karura, too, sat up from her position reclining upon the bed.

"Up, Izumi" commanded his wife, "Tell me what you have found that the med-nin could not!"

"And take off the mask" Rasa added. In this situation, he needed to see her face, to see if she was telling the truth. Izumi rose to a kneeling position, taking off her mask and looking up at him.

"The Ichibi is a tanuki, and, accouding to the legends, extremely alcoholic. Upon being sealed, initially within a priest, then within a kettle, it has gone without sake for a long time. This is also when the stories of Shukaku's madness and violence began to spread. Essentially, the biju is going through withdrawal symptoms and is lashing out with its chakra in its rage. This causes a leaking of such symptoms, namely increased sensitivity to pain, irritability, emotional instability, anxiety and restlessness or insomnia. The proplems are caused by chakra, not illness or any physical cause, and so cannot be detected by med-nin." She explained calmly, wondering idly whether Kazekage-sama would throw her to the psyc-nin or just kill her.

Rasa held up his hand to stop her. Unfortunately, it sounded all too plausible, in a crazy, chakra-theory sort of way. He knew his old teammate very well indeed, and would have married her if she had not been rendered barren in the war. She would have never said a word if she did not believe it was the absolute truth. Still, it was better to get all the details first.

"What solution do you propose?" he asked.

"Someone needs to enter the seal and communicate with the biju to reach some sort of agreement that preserves the health of Karura-sama and the child." Izumi said. "If that fails, the seal must be tightened to prevent chakre leakage from reaching Karura-sama."

Rasa considered this. Altering the Seal would be nigh impossibl given the quality of fuuinjutsu users in Suna, and outsiders could not be trusted with this. But there were enough reports of such things – Han and Roshi, the Jinchuriki of Iwa were fully capable of drawing on their biju's chakra – that it could be theorised that they had reached an agreement with their own biju. It was a possibility… "And who do you propose shall undertake this task?" he asked calmly. He aldready had some idea where she was going with this. Izumi was a genjutsu mistress after all, one who had experienced Yamanaka jutsu and had developed defences against mind based techniques. Besides, she was his teammate, and who else would he trust with such a delicate negotiation. The lives of his wife, and potentially his child, were at risk.

"If Kazekage-sama wishes it, this one would be honoured." Izumi said solemnly, looking into his eyes.

Rasa sighed through his nose, looking at his wife. Karura looked mildly surprised yet there was a dawning realisation in her eyes.

"I will consider it." He said to Izumi, "Dismissed."

She put on her mask, and vanished into the house.