Characters/Pairings: Yondaime Kazekage, Karura
Author's Note: sandydragon's review got me to thinking about this. I don't know if any of you are familiar with the movie Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, but there's a concept from there that I find interesting. The movie suggests something along these lines: for ever course of action you do not take, an alternate universe with an Earth where you did take that option pops up. Well, let's assume something along those lines is at work here. And yes, I know, it's a weird name I use for the Kazekage; if Kishimoto ever bothers to tell us what his canon name is, I'll change it to that.
Dedication: Dedicated to sandydragon.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
"Let it be me instead."
Sabaku no Takeo, better known as the Yondaime Kazekage and still sporting a violent headache after the fierce argument he and his wife just had, frowns at this. He lowers his hand from his forehead to frown at her. Fury has left her face yet but Karura looks considerably calmer now, even if her face is set in a grim cast. "What?"
Dark green eyes narrow. "You heard me. Let the Shukaku be sealed into me instead of our child."
Beat.
The moment Takeo's mind finally registers what she just said, he explodes. "Absolutely not!"
"And why not?" Karura demands, baring her teeth. "You said it yourself. If you had another choice you'd take it, and this is a different choice, Takeo! What's the difference between who the host becomes, so long as there is a jinchuuriki in Suna's hands?"
"You're too old," Takeo points out bluntly. "Your chakra coils are fully formed and hardened. They wouldn't be able to accommodate the Shukaku's chakra and your body would reject the bijuu. There's a reason a newborn is considered the optimal choice to become a bijuu's host, Karura."
She tilts her chin up stubbornly, and what was once endearing is now only maddening. "Uzumaki Mito was older," she challenges. "She was twenty-six and sealing the Kyuubi into herself didn't kill her."
"You don't have the Uzumaki's vitality!" Takeo snaps. "And Uzumaki Mito was ill off and on for the rest of her life, because the Kyuubi kept trying to break the seal."
Takeo braces his hands on the windowsill and glowers out on the night-darkened city. Trust Karura to take the most ridiculous idea and try to put some weight behind it. It won't work; it just won't. And trust her to make an already wrenchingly difficult decision even harder. Damn it; I shouldn't have let her talk to me.
Gritting his teeth, he turns again to face his wife. "You're insane. I didn't think anyone could be more nonsensical than when Temari found that damn teapot and started talking to it, but you've proved me wrong. There's no way that will work, and I don't know what makes you think it will."
Karura crosses her arms around her chest. "I don't want to die." Her eyes harden. "Not in the way you have proposed."
"Let me assure you, having the Shukaku claw its way back out of your belly won't be a pleasant way to die either."
A sharp sigh hits the air as Karura sinks back into the nearest chair. "Just think about it." Her left hand is resting on her slightly protruding belly, her right sifting through her sandy hair, and Karura looks far older than he's ever seen her. "If you have the Shukaku sealed into our child, he—or she—won't be available as a true weapon until a decade or so has passed from birth."
Yes, he knows that. It's not the most attractive option but at least sealing the Shukaku into his child before the child is actually born will allow for a jinchuuriki host fully acclimated to the bijuu's massive chakra.
"On the other hand, if you wait until I've given birth and you have the Shukaku sealed into me instead, if I survive the sealing process and my chakra coils don't implode you should have your weapon in about the space of a year."
Takeo frowns. That doesn't sound half bad; if anything, the thought of having a jinchuuriki to bolster Sunagakure sooner rather than later is an attractive one.
Sensing she's making headway, Karura's mouth starts to twitch in a smirk. "And think. The Shukaku is renowned to cause insomnia in its hosts. Who's going to be better equipped to deal with that: a child who hasn't got a clue what's happening to them, or an adult who does?"
He… hadn't really thought of it that way.
Well… If it works…
I can't believe I'm actually agreeing to this. Oh well; it has to be someone connected to me anyway, and Karura seems… open to the thought.
Reluctantly, he nods. "Alright. But if the sealing kills you or the Shukaku decides it doesn't plan on staying, don't say I didn't warn you."
Slowly, Karura smiles.