So I was wandering back through the tags to read more of Primadonna Girl and look into Sabaku no Shinki, and I noticed that one bit where Shikako was pregnant and could FEEL the baby's interaction with her chakra--so ... do you think Shikako "cloning is easy" Nara pioneered some external womb seal-tech after that, so that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES would she EVER have to do that again?
This kind of touches on this post in which an anon asked about why I didn’t have Shikako and Gaara have biological kids with each other, but obviously less cringe-inducing. I think Shikako would make—or massively contribute to or, at the very least, consult the pioneers behind it—a seal/tech-based external womb not for her own benefit (because I do maintain SHE doesn’t necessarily want [more] children) but for someone else.
The first go to that comes to mind would be Risshuu Shingon and Saidai Nara (aka, Ritsu Shingon’s parents from the Sunshine Sidestories) who have, as you previously said and which I still find absolutely hilarious, “incompatible meatware” to have biological children of their own. We literally see their wedding in the side story so that they can build a stable domestic household for their daughter. But we also see how nervous Risshuu is about it and even Saidai, in his Nara way, given he wanted to get the wedding done IMMEDIATELY, because even though he was reassuring Risshuu the whole time, he must have also felt that if he didn’t seize the opportunity NOW, with the clan heirs being acting clan heads, then they may not be able to do it UNTIL the clan heirs ACTUALLY because clan heads — a decade or more, he said.
All that being said: I would think after some time of letting the concept of being legally married settle in their brains, when they’re no longer so worried of it being taken away from them, they would want to consider having another child. And, like, obviously they’re considering adoption or surrogacy because… you know… that’s what’s available… but I do like the idea of Shikako hearing about it (maybe from Ritsu, who’s old enough to understand what’s happening, but not old enough to know not to tell her hero intimate family details) and then showing up at their house during breakfast and sitting down—just really giving Risshuu deja vu—and dropping the “Do you want biological kids?”
And, well, they’re not going to say no to that. They just… didn’t think it was an option.
And Shikako does say—well, it’s not an option… YET.
And then she sweeps into the next Sealing Group meeting and just throws this topic into the ring and everyone just goes all in on this. It’s the exact overlap of sealing and medicine and “impossible” with further/alternate applications. Because I think the steps to make a functional external womb which WOULDN’T require constant concentration or exact chakra control could also lead into things like… how do bacta tanks work in Star Wars? Or stasis/travel seals to bring injured patients from the field back to a more incorporated hospital.
And, you know, there are probably a bunch of OTHER people who would appreciate an external womb: other couples with incompatible meatware, fertility issues in general. The more, uh, “corporate” equivalent would be clans with members who are reluctant to have kids but are the prime example of their blood limits so if the clan agrees to take care of the kid, they don’t mind donating their genetic material. Or even maybe civilian nobility? But that gets iffy.
Anyway, I don’t think Shikako knows enough by herself, but she definitely has access to and influence over people who cumulatively have the knowledge to pull this off.
