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IV

Surprise, Surprise

"Yashamaru...?" Gaara breathed, "Why?"

"Why you...? Why?!" Gaara muttered incoherently.

"Love is care and devotion that you feel for those around you..." Yashamaru's words seemed to echo in his head. "After all, Gaara-sama is my precious person!"

"Why..." Gaara whimpered, a single tear streaking down his face as Yashamaru stayed silent.

"Always... You were always... only you were my..." Gaara mumbled, another tear escaping his eyes.

"It was an order..." Yashamaru said simply, gazing at the sky, "I was ordered to assassinate you."

Gaara felt hopeful, 'So... Yashamaru did not want to do this?'

"By your father, Kazekage-sama," Yashamaru finished.

Gaara was not that surprised, but it still hurt nonetheless to hear that his father wanted him dead that badly.

"Tou-san? Why...?" Gaara sobbed, tears now streaking his cheeks unbidden.

"You were born to be possessed by the living sand spirit, Shukaku, and had been watched carefully from the very beginning as an experimental subject," Yashamaru explained. "However, even up to now, you have shown to be incapable of controlling the powers of the living spirit. Before long, your existence may very well threaten the village. We simply couldn't let that happen."

This was something that Gaara understood. He had been implanted with Shukaku as a weapon for the village. Ineffective weapons were often cast away and he was no different.

"Then... then you had no choice. It was because of father," Gaara said, a small smile tugging at his lips as he gazed at his uncle, hope shining in his eyes.

"...No... you're mistaken," Yashamaru spoke, startling Gaara.

"Kazekage-sama was indeed the one to give the order, but I was the one who chose to accept it. I could have declined if I wanted to," Yashamaru lied smoothly while meeting Gaara's gaze steadily, leaving Naruto impressed by his acting skills.

"Gaara-sama... I must have always, deep down in my being, resented you..." Yashamaru lied, still not breaking eye contact with his nephew.

At this point, Gaara started feeling dubious. He had heard Yashamaru's thoughts before being attacked, which he had at first dismissed as his hyperactive imagination when he was first attacked. Then the ANBU turned out to be Yashamaru, who had suddenly begun to say things that did not add up. Yashamaru had apologised, which was probably because he was preparing to say all this. In that case, Yashamaru was probably just feeding him lies and half-truths at this point. However, the two were woven together so well that he had trouble distinguishing them. Gaara silently thanked Naruto for reminding him to look underneath the underneath. If not for that piece of advice, Gaara would have foolishly accepted his uncle's lies.

"For coming into this world... for stealing away my dear nee-san..." Yashamaru averted his gaze, staring at the starry sky as he thought at the same time, 'but that was all Rasa's fault. What kind of idiot implants a bijū in a fetus while it is still in its mother's womb? What kind of imbecile blames a baby for killing its mother when he was the one who caused the tragedy in the first place?'

Gaara blinked, his eyes already dry as he frowned in confusion at the contradicting claims.

Yashamaru met Gaara's eyes again and continued even though Gaara had already decided that what Yashamaru said from that point was going to be complete bullshit, "I tried my best to love you by thinking of you as her memento..."