Author: just my mind doing a little drabble. I haven't read the manga, but I've watched the anime and I know that Gaara becomes Kazekage, so this is the product of limited knowledge. I defiantly don't own Naruto, otherwise I would KNOW everything, and have read the manga.

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Thinking was one thing that Yashamaru did a lot these days. After all, there wasn't much else to do when one was dead. He had contemplated many subjects as his soul remained in the land of the living. He had covered politics, life and death, fate and other such things before realizing that this just might drive him insane and he would be better off scrutinizing something else before… well, there wasn't a before anything. He was already dead.

His new favorite subject of contemplation was Sabaku no Gaara.

He remembered the boy, of course, and he remembered feeling the hate towards him. Now that he was dead and didn't have the glands in his body to make him feel the hatred, he did what he was becoming great at. Contemplating every aspect of his thoughts.

He remembered first meeting the boy, wide-eyed, lonely, desperate for companionship. He also remembered hating him, the demon brat who had killed his beloved sister. Now he wondered how. How could a boy, not even born, be blamed for death? A boy who couldn't help but be born. He supposed then and there that love overcame logic, as it is wont to do.

He remembered lots of things, up till his own death, that made him wonder. He wondered if the boy would have been different had he himself not died. Had not been consumed by hate. Had the world not been destined to hate demons. Had Gaara not been born with Shukaku sealed inside of him.

He thought about that a lot, as he watched his former charge grow colder, killed more, descended deeper into his own madness. He found himself wishing things had been different. He followed the boy, wishing that his arms were real, so he could wrap them around the boy and that his voice still could be heard so he could whisper 'I'm so sorry' for what he had done.

Then he followed the boy to the Hidden Village of Leaf. He knew the mission, and was prepared to watch Gaara kill and enjoy and exist like only he knew how.

The Kyuubi boy changed him. It came as a shock, to see someone with a demon inside them happy, so different from the cold Gaara. He paused for a moment, wondering how he knew the blonde was a demon, let alone the infamous Kyuubi. He shrugged non-existant shoulders, letting it slide, and continued to watch.

The Chuunin exams continued as he thought they would, ending up in a war. But something he had predicted didn't happen. Gaara didn't get the chance to kill many. The blonde stopped him. Someone had the power to stop Sabaku no Gaara. Yashamaru thought that had he been alive, he would have felt relieved.

But it wasn't that he had just stopped Gaara. After that fight, something changed. Yashamaru could see it, and he was amazed. The silent boy was still silent, and still seen as a demon… but he started to try to get closer to people. His brother and sister for examples, and they welcomed him.

He became the next Kazekage. Never while he was alive would Yashamaru consider the boy wanting the position. And the people respected him, cared to a certain extent for him.

And as Yashamaru continued to observe, watching as Gaara sat in Konoha, talking to the Kyuubi over a bowl of ramen, he would smile and wish even harder for a voice that could be heard, so he could say 'Thank you' to the blonde.