That heart-rending cry of "Why?" carried the despair of someone betrayed by the entire world.
It echoed above the Hidden Sand Village, and it echoed in the hearts of every person watching.
On the heavenly curtain, Yashamaru lay in a pool of blood, staring at the kneeling Gaara. There was no guilt in his eyes.
Instead, a twisted smile crept across his face, something cruel and unnatural.
Slowly, he began to speak. Every word he uttered became another blade cutting into the child's already fragile heart.
"I wanted to kill you. Of course I did. Because I have always, always hated you."
His voice, once soft and warm, was now cold and filled with malice.
"It was you, a cursed child, who took my beloved sister's life."
A lie.
The first lie crafted by Rasa. A lie Yashamaru had been forced to carry.
Gaara's small body trembled violently. His emerald eyes shrank in disbelief.
Hate me?
The uncle who gently tended his wounds, the man who taught him what love meant… hated him?
…Outside the vision, in the real Hidden Sand Village…
The village erupted into chaos.
"Lies! That has to be a lie!" an older woman screamed. "Yashamaru was kind. He would never hate Gaara!"
"But… but the Fourth Kazekage really did order him to kill the boy!"
"Then was it true? Did Gaara's birth really cause Lady Karura's death?"
Suspicion, confusion, and anger churned through the crowd like a rising sandstorm.
Every pair of eyes now glared at the Kazekage's mansion with growing hostility.
Inside the office, Rasa's face had turned ghostly pale.
He wanted to explain, to defend himself, to shout that Yashamaru's words were lies forced upon him.
But he could not.
If he admitted the truth, his authority would be destroyed.
All he could do was stand there helplessly as the heavenly curtain continued broadcasting the tragedy he had caused.
On the sky screen, Yashamaru's cruel smile grew even sharper.
He watched Gaara's devastated expression as if it were a masterpiece and then delivered the second, most poisonous lie.
"Gaara, do you know? Your name has nothing to do with your mother loving you."
"Your mother, Karura, did not love you at all. She named you Gaara to curse this village that took her life."
"Gaara means one who loves only himself, a lonely demon driven only by self-love."
Boom.
The words exploded through Gaara's mind like black lightning.
One who only loves himself. A demon.
Not a child loved by his mother, but a monster.
His final emotional anchor, the belief that his name carried even the faintest trace of his mother's love, shattered completely.
"No… that is not true… you are lying…"
In the shadows of the real world, Gaara clutched his head and collapsed to the ground in agony.
His entire body shook uncontrollably. The gourd behind him trembled violently as sand swarmed around him like enraged serpents, hissing sharply.
A terrifying surge of chakra erupted from his small frame, a storm of despair and rage that shot toward the sky.
Inside the Kazekage's office, Rasa felt the crushing pressure and staggered backward.
He stared at the rising sand outside, at the broken child on the sky screen, and for the first time, true fear and regret seized him.
What have I done?
But remorse came far too late.
The vision continued relentlessly.
On the screen, Yashamaru looked at Gaara, now collapsing into madness, and delivered his final lie.
"And that sand you think protects you, the sand you imagine is your mother's love? Stop dreaming."
"That is the monster inside you, Shukaku. It is not protecting you. It is craving blood. It wants you to kill. It wants you to destroy."
With trembling fingers, Yashamaru unbuttoned his flak jacket.
Underneath, dozens of explosive tags were strapped to his body.
Gasps erupted across the entire ninja world.
From the beginning, Yashamaru had not intended to return alive.
"Gaara… my mission has failed."
Relief troubled Yashamaru's expression as he smiled weakly.
"So please, die with me."
He ignited every explosive tag.
A blinding white light engulfed the screen.
The thunderous blast left the world in horrified silence.
To shatter a child's heart with lies and then try to end his life with an explosion…
It was cruelty almost beyond comprehension.
"Fourth Kazekage!"
Someone in the Sand Village screamed first.
In an instant, a tidal wave of fury swept through the crowd.
"Rasa, you liar!"
"You deceived all of us!"
"You failed as a father and disgraced us as a leader. You do not deserve the title of Kazekage!"
Villagers stormed toward the mansion, unleashing years of buried resentment and outrage.
Rasa's reputation collapsed instantly.
As the last trace of white light faded, the screen revealed a massive sphere of sand.
It slowly dissolved, revealing Gaara unharmed.
Absolute Defense had protected him again.
But this time, he wished it had not.
He wished he had died together with Yashamaru in that explosion.
The young Gaara stood motionless.
No tears. No expression. Only emptiness.
As if his soul had been drained from his body.
"I understand now…"
His voice was monotone, lifeless.
"So in the end… nobody loves me."
"Since that is the case…"
He slowly raised his hand and pressed his palm to his forehead.
Blood seeped between his fingers as the sand obeyed his will.
Like a sharpened blade, it carved a crimson symbol into his skin.
Love.
The thing he had once desperately longed for.
Now it had become the cruelest irony of his life.
He stared down at his stained hand as if it belonged to a stranger.
"I will fight for myself alone. I will love only myself."
"If killing others is the only way I can exist, then I will kill."
And in that moment, a child who could have been saved was pushed into darkness.
A monster was born not by nature, but by the cruelty of his own village and father.
Across the ninja world, a heavy silence fell.
They had watched a child be shaped into a monster through betrayal and lies.
In the Hidden Leaf Village, Naruto stared at the boy carving blood into his own forehead.
His heart clenched painfully.
He saw himself.
He remembered the lonely nights, the hateful stares, the whispers calling him a demon.
But he had been blessed with even a few who cared: the Third Hokage, Iruka, Teuchi from Ichiraku.
Gaara had nothing.
His one and only light had been nothing more than a fabricated lie.
Grief, anger, and empathy welled up inside Naruto with overwhelming force.
Just when the world thought the tragedy had reached its end, the heavenly curtain shifted once more.
The scene rewound to the moment before Yashamaru triggered the explosions.
This time, the angle changed.
A hidden side view.
Everyone saw it clearly.
Even with that cruel smile, a single tear slid down Yashamaru's cheek.
Just before the flash swallowed him, his lips moved silently.
Ninjas skilled in lip-reading understood the words immediately.
"I am sorry."