What was the meaning of living?! I had to find it!
Gaara's roar brimmed with savage menace as his gaze swept across the barriers surrounding him.
Anyone who stood in his way would die.
To him, family was nothing more than flesh pieced together from murderous intent and hatred.
When he had first been born, Sunagakure had been desperately poor. Granny Chiyo came up with an idea, and the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, personally oversaw the sealing of the One-Tail Shukaku into his body, all to forge the village's strongest weapon.
His mother, Karura, died on the birthing bed.
His uncle, Yashamaru, raised him, while Rasa taught him ninjutsu.
Because of the terrifying power of Shukaku lurking inside him, the villagers feared him—and hated him even more.
Only Yashamaru ever looked at him properly. Only Yashamaru understood that the child had never wanted to hurt anyone.
But the Fourth Kazekage insisted on personally assessing his worth.
To observe whether he could restrain his emotions and keep Shukaku under control, Rasa ordered Yashamaru to assassinate him. He even fabricated a lie, claiming that Yashamaru had never loved him, that he had only cared for him to avenge his sister Karura, and that even his mother hated him.
Those words scraped away the last trace of longing for Karura in his heart.
When he discovered that the person trying to kill him was Yashamaru, the shock and grief overwhelmed him. Shukaku broke loose, only to be forcibly suppressed by the Fourth Kazekage's gold dust.
From that day onward, the Fourth Kazekage branded him a "failure."
Assassination attempts came one after another, never stopping.
The more alone he lived, the more blood stained his hands, and the more disgusted he became with the world.
If not for Sand's Protection left behind by his mother,