Karura

was a Sunagakure citizen and the wife of the Fourth Kazekage.

Background
Karura and her husband had three children: Temari, Kankurō and Gaara. When she was pregnant with her youngest son, One-Tailed Shukaku was sealed in the child. Gaara was born prematurely, and Karura died from the premature childbirth despite her husband's attempts to save her. Before she died, she asked to see her baby and declared her desire to protect him at all cost.

According to Yashamaru, her younger brother, it was against her wishes for her husband to have the Shukaku sealed within Gaara before he was born. During his birth, her life was used to power the sealing process. Before she died, it was said that she cursed Sunagakure, hoping that her son would avenge her death and the horror she had been put through. She supposedly named him after the phrase only her desire for revenge against the village, and had no love for her son. Due to Yashamaru's words concerning the nature of his powers, Gaara became confused and came to view Shukaku as an extension of his mother, and the sand as a manifestation of her love. During the Fourth Shinobi World War however, this is proven to be a lie perpetrated by her husband and brother, Yashamaru in order to test Gaara. It was revealed that she in fact loved Gaara and before dying swore to always protect him. Her husband would later tell Gaara that the sand didn't protect him through the will of Shukaku but instead it was his mother's own will.

Trivia

 * Karura's name is written with three kanji: the kanji for, the kanji for , and the kanji for . The last kanji is the same as the final kanji in Gaara's name and can be taken as an abbreviation of the word or the word . Together, the name can be interpreted as "the demon who adds to the flow [of sand or hatred]".
 * When written as 迦楼羅, "karura" is the Japanese name for Garuda.
 * While Karura's blood type isn't given in her databook profile, it can be determined to be type B, due to her children and husband's blood types and how it is inherited.

Quotes
(To Gaara) "What a small, feeble child... No matter what happens, I'll always protect you! Gaara...!"