Karura

was a Sunagakure citizen.

Background
Married to the Fourth Kazekage, Karura bore Temari and Kankurō prior to being pregnant with their youngest child Gaara. Apparently against her husband's wishes, Karura was forced to allow the tailed beast Shukaku to be sealed within their unborn son. However, this came at a very steep cost as Gaara's premature birth was also marked by her untimely death. Before her death, however, with her medical team unable to save her, and her heart rate falling rapidly, Karura requested to see her child. Seeing how small and feeble the young Gaara was, Karura declared her desire to protect him at all cost as she cradled him before passing away.

Personality
Karura was a kind and gentle woman who cared deeply for her children and family.

Appearance
Karura bore a striking resemblance to her younger brother, Yashamaru, and by extension, her daughter Temari. She possessed wavy, sandy-blonde hair which framed her kind-looking face in a shoulder-length bob, fair skin, and violet eyes. In life, as well as in the picture in Yashamaru's apartment, Karura wore a simple, long-sleeved, dark brown dress, along with a long, light yellow scarf draped loosely around her neck. In the Fourth Kazekage's flashbacks of her death, Karura wore a sleeveless, pale pink hospital gown, and had grown rather pale. She also gained dark bags under her eyes.

Legacy
In her debut, it was fairly obvious by the portrait in Yashamaru's apartment, as well as the latter speaking of his sister's memory with reverence, that Karura was deeply cared for, even causing Gaara to look up to her as the only person besides his uncle to truly love him as a child. However, due to Yashamaru reluctantly lying to his nephew on his brother-in-law's behalf to test him, Gaara was under the impression that Karura was sacrificed to ensure he became a jinchūriki and that her final words were of him to become the tool of her revenge on Sunagakure. She supposedly named him after the phrase. This caused Gaara to develop a warped ideology of love, and as a result, Gaara lost the admiration that he once previously felt for Karura in his heart. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Gaara learned the truth of his father's deception and how Karura truly died. Because of her dying wish to protect her son, both the Fourth Kazekage and Yashamaru believe that her will now lives on in the sand that protects Gaara rather than being an manifestation of Shukaku's chakra.

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.
 * In chapters 547 and 548, Karura's name is written as 加瑠羅 instead of 加流羅. Both 瑠 and 流 can be used to write the Japanese word for, a semi-precious stone with strong symbolic value in Buddhism. It is thought to have healing and strengthening properties and represents Bhaiṣajyaguru, the Buddha of Medicine, known as in Japan.

Quotes

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