Her new sword concealed in an umbrella is called Airi (愛莉). It was a surprise present from Gaara. It came from the one time he gave her his umbrella and said she would need one always. She had said it would be funny to have a katana and umbrella at the same time. He never forgot that !  

Yukiko was really caring towards Gaara, and did not seem judgmental at all of his past. She believed in him and his ability to be a better person. Her speech echoed Naruto’s. She was coming to him with simplicity, never forcing him to talk, finding some other ways to communicate with him without crossing his boundaries. Their relationship was kinda rocky tho as they both were clumsy, and discovering new feelings he wasn’t ready to accept at the moment. It resulted in a fight one day. Even though she wasn’t fighting back.  Just letting him unleash all his violence. « If it can help you feel better. But you’ll see you'll feel more lonely once you'll have killed me.» And he did feel terribly bad when he almost lost her. After this bad incident, Gaara decided to try to apologize to her by coming to her with his umbrella, to keep her covered. His clothes had changed from his black outfit to a dark red one. He was willing to make efforts, to really change. She could feel he was willing to make the effort, and really trying to be the best version of himself so she accepted the apology (and the umbrella) gladly and continued talking to him like if nothing wrong happened. He had understood the consequences of his actions already, no need to insist. She better support him. This day she evoked the idea of putting a blade in an umbrella to protect herself from both the sun and her foes. Gaara actually remembered this idea. Airi. The iconic umbrella katana of Yukiko was born.

Yukiko’s Kekkai Genkai can be used in a deviant way, using the same principle of « giving life » to an inanimate thing, passing the chakra through the roots from several points of energy in the body. It is called « Futabi Tatsu » (再び立つ) = « stand again » (cf Nakamura clan info pt2). It could be compared to « Edo Tensei ». It seems like a great alternative to it, because the toll isn’t human lives, but plants and animals. All the energy transfer is done through the ground and roots, using the thorns as pipes transferring energy. It allows the reconstruction of the flesh and brain, but we can’t really say the « soul » is back in. The resurrected people are mostly empty shells, with no will to live, and depending on the person who brought them back, like an infant to their mother, unable to express their suffering. They don’t seem to have any memories of their past lives, just some reflexes. Hava discovered some of the limits of Futabi Tatsu when Yukiko failed to bring back her still born baby. « I can bring back those who once breathed. But your son never did.» Hava will manipulate Yuki into bringing back her mother, Hikari, in order to test her ability to use this technique. She made her believe people lied about her suicide and Yuki could still « save her » as she had been imprisoned. So she led Yuki to perform the ritual, « to set her free». Yukiko wanted to believe so hard she could bring her family back together, she clang to this hope. She triggered her memory to write in the contract, with her own blood, writing « 母 » Mother on her belly and then on the tree used as a receptacle «子 » Child. It was long and painful, the thorns drained a lot of chakra out of Yukiko, she lost a lot of blood, giving some of her own to this « child ». After more than an hour she « raised » again, crawling, unable to stand on her trembling legs. She looked at Yukiko, muttering some indistinct words getting out painfully of her jaw until one word could be distinctive : « Mama ».

From all the people Gaara had to face in his life, the Colourless Princess, Yukiko Nakamura, was one of the most challenging. He had to accept his love for her, then accept to let her go, having lost her, then she became an enemy and he had to fight her. He knew he had vowed to kill her for the sake of his people if she was ever to come back. Yet when she did, he took the risk to protect her, against Suna’s Council  approval and she got her redemption, and later on, could protect her own people too. When they met, Gaara’s sand immediately reacted to Yukiko in a protective way, even before himself  could consider tolerating her.  Even if Gaara was unable to understand his feelings at first, to accept and understand his desire of protecting her, Karura could feel it. She decided, when they met and Yukiko got attacked, to protect Yuki like she would protect her son. Because she felt she would be someone who could help to guide her son to the right path and give him the love she cannot.  Yukiko has a very maternal side to her (see how she takes care of her sisters). She has this strong benevolence that helped Gaara changing and echoed Naruto’s speech. Yukiko never had any bad judgment towards Gaara, she would only state facts and remind him his actions have consequences & can affect other people. She never really rejected him even when he hurt her, she just took some distance after one of their fights to make him think of his actions. Karura knew what feelings he had for her, and she tried several times to establish a connexion with Yukiko, knowing her bond with the dead there may be a way to send a message. But it failed as Yukiko, too young and too lost in her life at this point was unable to open herself. However the mother’s approval can manifest through these hands of sand protecting both her son and the one he loves. 

I really wanted to post this piece on the day of her birthday, it really felt like a big achievement for me. I started working on this huge piece in September and literally finished it yesterday ! I think it's the piece that I worked the most time on ! xD The bg, the composition, the cleaning and colouring of the poses ... Idk why I wanted to make some kind of compilation of Yukiko with her Airi sword. Nevermind I feel like it's royal for her bday ! I wanted to draw this big chaotic piece of her kind of to thank her in a way. Ik it may seem weird bc Yukiko is a fictional character, but she's brought sm joy and happiness in my life. She boosted my creativity like no other OCs never did. She gave me comfort and fun to draw. Sometimes I even think she is some kind of sweet reassuring big sister entity to me, even if I'm technically the one who gave her life ! xD I feel like she helped me overcome some of my burdens and most importantly she allowed me to met amazing friends like you in here ! So yeah thanks Yukiko, thanks Charlotte for pushing me to create a Naruto OC again back then. Thanks for everyone who support me, from the start when my art was kinda inexperienced, to nowadays where I still learn from you each days. You have all been motivating me, supporting me, being so dedicated and inspiring with your beautiful stories, ocs, style. I love this community sm and I wanna say it ! Thanks to everyone for making this day incredible already ! I am speechless idk how to thank you enough. 💕💕💕💕💕💕 So from the top left to bottom right: 1) So here you have some badass late teenager Yuki looking in the horizon with her freshly acquired Airi sword 2) Just a silly back view to show the blade inside the umbrella 3) Young adult Yukiko chilling in Sunagakure/Konoha with Airi 4) In Boruto era Yukiko in her 30's, the first female Nakamura clan leader  and daimyo of Land of Iron. 5) Young adult Yukiko flirting in Sunagakure receiveing some sweet little message from Gaara as you could see on my last post ♥ ___________________________________ Credits : The overall concept of this drawing of putting several poses of one character on a huge collage is inspired by two of @dicityblock's drawings of Jun and Misora, so thank you sweetie for being such an inspirational artist ! I believe in you and you would deserve all the success in the world ! 💕💕 Everything here is my art except the first pose on the bottom, it started as an edit (base gintama) that I had to correct the anatomy on actually xD

I really wanted to post this piece on the day of her birthday, it really felt like a big achievement for me. I started working on this huge piece in September and literally finished it yesterday ! I think it's the piece that I worked the most time on ! xD The bg, the composition, the cleaning and colouring of the poses ... Idk why I wanted to make some kind of compilation of Yukiko with her Airi sword. Nevermind I feel like it's royal for her bday ! I wanted to draw this big chaotic piece of her kind of to thank her in a way. Ik it may seem weird bc Yukiko is a fictional character, but she's brought sm joy and happiness in my life. She boosted my creativity like no other OCs never did. She gave me comfort and fun to draw. Sometimes I even think she is some kind of sweet reassuring big sister entity to me, even if I'm technically the one who gave her life ! xD I feel like she helped me overcome some of my burdens and most importantly she allowed me to met amazing friends like you in here ! So yeah thanks Yukiko, thanks charlotte_quesada for pushing me to create a Naruto OC again back then. Thanks for everyone who support me, from the start when my art was kinda inexperienced, to nowadays where I still learn from you each days. You have all been motivating me, supporting me, being so dedicated and inspiring with your beautiful stories, ocs, style. I love this community sm and I wanna say it ! Thanks to everyone for making this day incredible already ! I am speechless idk how to thank you enough. 💕💕💕💕💕💕 So from the top left to bottom right: 1) So here you have some badass late teenager Yuki looking in the horizon with her freshly acquired Airi sword 2) Just a silly back view to show the blade inside the umbrella 3) Young adult Yukiko chilling in Sunagakure/Konoha with Airi 4) In Boruto era Yukiko in her 30's, the first female Nakamura clan leader  and daimyo of Land of Iron. 5) Young adult Yukiko flirting in Sunagakure receiveing some sweet little message from Gaara as you could see on my last post ♥ ___________________________________ Credits : The overall concept of this drawing of putting several poses of one character on a huge collage is inspired by two of @dicityblock's drawings of Jun and Misora, so thank you sweetie for being such an inspirational artist ! I believe in you and you would deserve all the success in the world ! 💕💕 Everything here is my art except the first pose on the bottom, it started as an edit (base gintama) that I had to correct the anatomy on actually xD

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