Here's the final installment in the Remembrance trilogy. You've been waiting for it, and here it is…Gaara!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Gaara's mother died giving birth to him. He has no memory of her for as long as she was alive. The only companionship they shared was when he was in her womb, growing.
Gaara is aware of the exact moment the Shukaku entered him. He was roughly four or five months away from being born. It isn't a memory, exactly. It's a strange, terrible inkling of pain and terror and changing. He's aware, not aware, but he just knows, that his eyes would be the same shade of green as Temari's if this hadn't happened to him.
Karura is an enigma to her two older children. They don't understand why they did what they did, why she cursed the village and doomed their youngest sibling to a life without love.
They don't fully understand how love could turn to hate so quickly, don't understand how she could feel both love and hate for the Kazekage.
Gaara does.
Gaara understands the duality of love and hate, understands how razor-thin the line between these two emotions are, because no matter how hard he tries to hate Yashamaru, some torturous tendril of love remains, tormenting him and breaking him beyond all repair…
He knows his mother's hate. The mother he knows isn't just the terrifying pseudo-mother the Shukaku became when he sought to exploit his host. The mother he knows is flesh-and-blood Sabaku no Karura, Karura of the blonde hair and green, gray-flecked eyes, of the iron fan and the hard courage.
He knows how much Karura hated his father. He knows because Gaara hates him in a way that is nearly identical. He hates him for ruining his life before it even began, for robbing him of his beloved mother, for making everyone terrified of him for something he couldn't control and didn't want.
He knows the way in which Karura hated her village. He knows that she hated them for selling her out, for keeping her in the dark about his father's plot until it was too late. He knows that she hated Sunagakure for failing her, for failing to save her or even try… Gaara once hated his village in such a fashion. He once hated them for fearing him, for hating him, for shunning him before he was even given a chance to be a good person, for never giving him a chance to be anything but a monster. He hated them once, but he does not hate them anymore.
Gaara knows his mother's hate, and he knows her love as well.
He knows how she loved her children, because Gaara loves his brother and sister. He has loved Temari and Kankuro through all the time in which they shunned his company and feared him, even when he despaired of ever being able to win their trust, even when he fervently denied that they loved him or that he felt anything for them but hate. It is this love that allows him and even the Shukaku to show discretion, to save his siblings when they are in dire straits and to avoid them when crushing all other opponents. In a room of eight, if six are killed then Kankuro and Temari will come out shaken but completely unharmed.
He understands how love drove her to do desperate things, because Gaara would and will willingly give his life for the village that once hated him and still for the most part shuns him. In his battle with the Akatsuki member, he drained his chakra dangerously low and ultimately sacrificed his life to save his village, all because the people he cares about are there. He understands how his mother could keep fighting a hopeless battle to save those she loved, how she could at once love and hate.
Gaara understands his mother's nature. He pities his older siblings their lack of understanding. And if he had been in her shoes…
He wouldn't have done anything differently.
Well, the trilogy is over after only three days. I hope you all have liked it. I enjoyed writing each of the Sand Sib's perspectives on Karura.
