I have a theory about Yashamaru: what if he were basically trying to kill himself by accepting the mission to kill Gaara? You can't be assigned to be the protector of the village's trump card without having more skills than a handful of thrown kunai and some explosive notes.

My feeling is that Yashamaru genuinely tried to love Gaara, but his love for his sister and his hate for her murderer became so twisted up inside that he both loved and hated Gaara, and suffered so much from it that getting himself killed by Gaara was his only way out, the only way to end the pain.

Now, why would he say something like that to Gaara? Perhaps he wanted to make Gaara hate the father and village that had created him as nothing but a monster to kill. (If that's the case, he did a damned good job.) Perhaps that was his form of revenge. I'm not sure.

Any thoughts?