Why did Yashamaru lie to Gaara that he hated him?

Question

I was re-watching Naruto, and when Gaara's backstory was being revealed, I noticed something that I never really understood earlier. Yashamaru was ordered to kill Gaara, yes, but in his last breath, he lies to Gaara that he never loved him, and that he couldn't forgive him for killing his sister during childbirth.

I read through the Naruto wiki - https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Yashamaru#Personality - to confirm whether he was actually lying to Gaara ,or whether my memory deceives me, but yes, the wiki also confirms that Yashamaru "claims" to hate Gaara but in reality, hated the Fourth Kazekage. So the question still remains - why did he lie to Gaara anyway? He was the only reason why Gaara was able to stay relatively sane for so long, and he was Gaara's only glimmer of hope and happiness in an otherwise lonely environment. What good can possibly come of stripping Gaara of that sliver of happiness and love?

My theory is that because Yashamaru hated the Fourth Kazekage, maybe he wanted Gaara to truly lose all semblance of humanity and fully embrace his inner demon and destroy the village. Maybe as a way to avenge his sister - if the Fourth Kazekage could do such horrible things to "protect the village", then enabling his own son to destroy his precious village would be a big middle finger in his face. Sounds like a dark theory, but I couldn't come up with anything better.

Does anyone know any canon reason? Or a better psychological explanation?

Answer 1

According to Naruto wiki article on Yashamaru,

Yashamaru's elder sister, Karura, died shortly after giving birth to her youngest son Gaara, within whom the One-Tailed Shukaku had been sealed. After her death, Yashamaru was appointed as Gaara's caretaker by the Fourth Kazekage. Unlike his fellow villagers, he attempted to understand his nephew's plight as a jinchūriki, and believed that the sand that flew to Gaara's aid in moments of danger was actually the will of Karura protecting her child. However, when Gaara's inability to control Shukaku proved a problem, the Fourth Kazekage tasked Yashamaru with the duty of attacking the boy both physically and psychologically to test his actual mastery over the beast's power. Yashamaru reluctantly accepted his role in order to teach Gaara about physical pain, emotional pain and love.

Yashamaru before he commits suicide.

The test became a suicide mission after Yashamaru was gravely injured by Gaara's Sand Binding Coffin. He lied to Gaara, telling him that he hated him and that his sister gave him his name from the phrase "a self-loving carnage" (我を愛する修羅, Ware o aisuru shura) to reflect the undying hatred she felt towards the village, rather than out of love for her son. Yashamaru then told Gaara that nobody would ever love him, and then detonated a series of explosive tags hidden within his flack jacket in an attempt to take Gaara with him. Yashamaru's cruel words and his suicide caused Gaara to become a sociopath and even more of an emotional wreck than he already was.

It would only be years later during the Fourth Shinobi World War that Gaara learned the truth of the mission he was given and that he had in fact lied to him about his mother under direct orders from the Fourth Kazekage.

In my opinion, to test Gaara, The Fourth Kazekage ordered Yashamaru to test Gaara mentally and physically. That test however ended up in the death of Yashamaru and Gaara becoming a sociopath. Yashamaru loved Gaara but to test Gaara he had to say things that he didn't even think of.

Yes, his sister was dead in the process of creating a Jinchuriki but that was a sacrifice for the whole village. So Yashamaru may hate the Fourth Kazakage but he still loved and cared for Gaara.

Answer 2

In my opinion, it was to protect Gaara. While Yashamaru is dying and explaining the origins of Gaara’s name he states that Gaara must love only himself and that is is the only way he will survive. I believe that Yashamaru foresaw that the assassination attempts would continue and that if Gaara didn't build an emotional wall between himself and the world he would never have survived and would have, in my opinion, become even more twisted than he was. But this is just my theory.