Gaara, the name that when pronounced causes people to freeze for an instant. Freeze because the name Gaara itself has become a synonym for death. Ever since his first appearance Gaara has inspired fear, seemingly being an emotionless killer, a monster. Gaara only talks when it's time to threaten someone or while having a thought about the person whom he is in battle with. Most of the time only the desire to kill and a deep hatred for everything that breathes consumes his every thought.
Like Naruto, Gaara also hides a terrible secret. He has sealed within his body one of the Jinchuuriki, a tailed demon. Deep within his body Shukaku awaits the moment when he'll wake up from his sleep, when the body of that who carries him falls alseep. Gaara's past is indeed the most tragic and awful of anyone in the series, from the moment he was born Gaara was deeply hated. His own Mother who gave birth to him even hated him for the fact that she was made a sacrifice for him, she would die cursing at him. The name Gaara itself is telling of his personality trait as it means "A demon who only loves himself". The name was chosen for him by his Mother who wished and believed he was only to fight for his sake and love only himself, and by doing so he would live on forever. This gesture was not done out of love for Gaara but rather in hopes that Gaara would live on to carry her grudge that everyone would come to acknowledge.
As a child things only got worse for Gaara. Always alone no child would dare play with him, every time he tried with the nicest smile that his tortured soul could possibly show everyone would run off screaming, screaming in fear as they believed him to be a moster that would kill them. This was only fuelled several times when out of a panicked self defense his sand barrier nearly killed a few of the children, which was no fault of Gaara. The only friend Gaara was able to find was in Yashamaru, the only person who really tried to love Gaara, the only one to calm him when he was sad, and give him advice when he could. This all changed when one night sitting alone, trying to understand the purpose in life, he was attacked by a single ninja. This was a foolish thing for the attacker to do as Gaara had no problem defending himself with a deadly attack that crushed the masked opponent. When Gaara unmasked the assailant he discovered that it was none other than the person who he considered a friend, Yashamaru! Yashamaru explained that he had received an order from Gaara's father, the Kazekage of the Hidden Sand Village, to kill Gaara. Absolutely terrified, backed into his last bit of sanity Gaara stated that Yashamaru was forced to attack him.
Yashamaru would only destroy this hypothesis by telling Gaara that this was only a last refuge, he could have refused the order but deep down he has always resented Gaara. He continued on saying Gaara had never been loved by anyone, not his Father, not his Mother, he was only an experiment made by the village to try and take control over the awesome power of the one tailed demon inside of Gaara, but he was a failure, and therefore the failure had to be killed. Even on the brink of death Yashamaru tried once more to kill Gaara, blowing himself up, but not killing Gaara. Following this Gaara began to believe that the only reason to live was to love himself and annihilate all who lived.