Nothing had changed. I wasn't sure, so I didn't try to assume it would, but disappointment turns out to be inevitable. Only the name had changed, only an empty title, two words that were already nearly synonymous. Their mouths can tell me "samma", "Kazekage-samma" but their eyes still tell me "monster", "lower than dirt, monster". My eyes don't tell them anything because they won't look to see me telling them "I'm different", "I've changed", they never looked to see me tell them "sorry", "I'm so sorry".
I wonder how many, still today, are sworn to loath me after two years of my leadership because of twelve years of my life I could not control. I see that as a Kage you must do what is best for your village at any cost, I am that very fact, created to save our village and nearly destroyed to keep it safe. But no matter how we define shinobi, no matter how we treat ourselves, a person cannot be siphoned away into a tool. The fourth Kazekage learned the hard way and those loyal to him still do not realize that I am neither. A monster used to own me, I wear these robes, this hat, I sign this form at this desk, but I am not a monster, I am not Kazekage. I am Gaara, simply Gaara who no one knows, who I've just met. And I want Gaara to become Kazekage now that the monster's cleaned up his mess, now that Suna is on the right track.
The monster; I was weaker than the monster, I was swallowed in its shadow and when it struck, it struck with my hands. That's why I screamed, I was not insane. I screamed because when it spoke, it spoke with my voice. And all I could do was run deeper into the dark because I had no one else to turn to, everyone close to me had a scar it had made with my hands, I was a monster. I came out of the monster's shadow and into the sun but no one can see me yet. The monster was pulled from my body and yet I still read "monster" at the end of every sentence my people say to me. I am Kazekage. Or I will be soon. I must earn their loyalty, I must earn their eye contact, their "Kazekage-samma". No one can do this for me.
I must chase away my own demons.