Gaara

Gaara (我愛羅) is a main protagonist in the anime and manga series Naruto. He is a shinobi of Sunagakure and is the Fifth Kazekage (五代目風影, Godaime Kazekage; Literally meaning "Fifth Wind Shadow"). Gaara is also the youngest child of the late Fourth Kazekage, and the younger brother of both Kankurō and Temari. He was the Jinchūriki of the One-Tailed Shukaku and, being raised as a tool of Sunagakure, Gaara gained the nickname Gaara of the Sand Waterfall (砂瀑の我愛羅, Sabaku no Gaara; English "Gaara of the Desert"). Though Gaara debuted as a major antagonist, as the series progresses, he is one of the series' central protagonists

Backround
Gaara is the son of the Fourth Kazekage, and the younger brother of Temari and Kankurō. Before Gaara's birth, his father ordered Chiyo to seal the One-Tailed Shukaku within him, in hopes that Gaara would become the ultimate weapon for Suna. Because a sacrifice was needed, Gaara's mother, Karura, was used. Before she died, Karura cursed Sunagakure, hoping Gaara would avenge her death. Gaara was trained by his father, but raised mainly by his maternal uncle, Yashamaru.

Because of the power of Shukaku, the villagers of Suna hated and feared Gaara, seeing him only for the monster sealed within him. For a time, Yashamaru seemed to be the only person who cared about Gaara. When Gaara would mistakenly harm others due to the subconscious abilities granted to him by Shukaku, Yashamaru would be the only one who understood that Gaara hadn't intended to harm anyone. Gaara's father, however, did not see Gaara in the same light, and viewed Gaara's frequent attacks upon villagers as a result of a failed experiment that was a threat to Suna.

Because of the danger Gaara imposed, his father began sending assassins to kill him, though when all attempts were met with failure, the Kazekage requested Yashamaru to kill Gaara. As a result, Yashamaru tried to assassinate Gaara, only to fail just as those before him. Gaara dealt a lethal blow to him. But when Gaara realized that it was Yashamaru, he was horrified, and screamed, before bursting into tears. Although Gaara tried to dismiss Yashamaru's attack as an order of the Kazekage, Yashamaru corrected him, by saying that he had willingly accepted the mission. Having never truly loved Gaara, Yashamaru hoped that killing Gaara would avenge the death of his sister, who had named Gaara after the phrase "a self-loving carnage" (我を愛する修羅, Ware wo ai suru shura), a sign of her intense hatred for Suna, not as love for her son. In the last ditch effort to kill Gaara, Yashamaru detonated a number of paper bombs covering his body, asking Gaara to "please die". Using his sand, Gaara survived the blast, and lost the only person he thought had cared for him. Since this incident, Gaara became an aloof and cruel person who would kill anyone to prove his existence and to obtain recognition from the village.

Personality
While Gaara had initially tried to be friendly towards others, despite their fear of him, Yashamaru's actions and words changed him. Realizing that nobody loved him, Gaara used his sand to create the kanji on his forehead "love" (愛, ai), as a symbol of a "demon loving only himself", and to live up to his name, as Karura intended. Gaara became emotionally withdrawn, all but silent, and consumed with a bitter loathing for everyone but himself and "Mother", the voice of Shukaku in his head. He learned to find pleasure, and eventually a reason to live, in annihilating the numerous assassins sent to kill him – and, by extension, anyone who threatened his existence. This was only worsened by the occasional demand by Shukaku for blood to sate its blood lust.

Gaara's insomnia, forced upon him by the fear that the demon inside him would eat away at him if he were to fall asleep, only furthered his instability and desire to kill. In fact, his hatred extends to his siblings, as he never saw them as such, and was fully willing to kill them were they to cross him. In time, Gaara's father would come to appreciate Gaara and the uses he could serve, and canceled all assassination orders in the hopes that Gaara would become an effective tool. The SiblingsGaara's childhood was, in many ways, similar to Naruto Uzumaki's, though more unfortunate due to his lack of anyone to call a friend. Both were lonely and desired to be liked, loved, and acknowledged as an individual, free of others' prejudices — they were themselves, not the demons they were forced to "contain" — and both were driven into a desperate state. While Naruto consequently developed the misconception that pranks and mischief would bring him the attention he sought, Gaara came to the conclusion that he could preserve and confirm his own existence by killing any and all who challenged it, securing an extreme form of existentialism as his key personality trait. In the absence of others' acknowledgment, he could compensate by valuing only himself to the exclusion of everyone else. Furthermore, while Naruto eventually had Iruka Umino and Team Kakashi to acknowledge him, Gaara never had anyone to bond with, not even his father or siblings, as they all despised and feared the Shukaku that dwells within him. The person who was closest to being friendly with Gaara was the deceitful Yashamaru, who ultimately betrayed him, which turned Gaara into a lonely sociopath. As such, Gaara did not understand the concept of fighting for anything other than himself until his confrontation with Naruto.

After being defeated by Naruto, Gaara was shocked to find that Naruto knew very well the pain that Gaara had endured all his life. He was even more surprised that Naruto never gave up hope on being acknowledged as a person and ultimately found friends who truly cared for him. Seeing the determination that Naruto had to protect his friends made Gaara question his own path in life. Realizing that he gave up too easily, Gaara decided to follow Naruto's path, wishing to become Kazekage of Sunagakure so he could be connected to his people, and hopefully have them finally acknowledge his existence as a person. Over the next few years, Gaara's determination to find happiness became apparent from his decision to rely on his own power rather than his inner demon's. Gaara eventually formed a close friendship with Naruto.

Although he remained ruthless against his opponents, Gaara appears extremely protective of his allies and innocent people, as seen when he protected his village from Deidara; and his siblings, Darui and even the Raikage against Sasuke. He also appears to deeply understand those who have suffered from loneliness and hatred in the past by the look in their eyes, such as Naruto, or even Sasuke.

Appearance


Like Naruto, Gaara is a little shorter than the average males of his age. He has pale skin and short, straight hair that is brick-red. Gaara's eyes are light turquoise. The pupils of his eyes are mostly invisible. Gaara has no eyebrows either. He has two very notable traits in his outward appearance: firstly, he has tanuki-like black eye rings, having them since his birth due to insomnia caused by the Shukaku. Secondly, he has created the kanji "love" (愛) on the left side of his forehead, having it since Yashamaru's betrayal. Gaara's forelocks are parted from the left side, making the kanji more visible. Gaara is often seen to stand straight, with his arms crossed over his chest.

In Part I, Gaara has been seen in three different costumes. When he was seen for the first time, he wore black full body suit with t-shirt-like sleeves, ¾-length legs, and an open neck. With this, he wore a white cloth over his right shoulder and the left side of his hips, and a wide leather band system over the left shoulder and right side of his hips. With this leather band, he carried around his gourd containing his sand. He also wrapped his forehead protector over the band. In his childhood flashbacks, he was seen wearing beige poncho-like clothing with full-length blue trousers and a short-sleeved black t-shirt.

In the Sasuke Retrieval arc, and in the final pre-Shippūden filler arc, he switched his previous black overalls to a reddish-brownish one with longer sleeves and an upright collar. He used this costume in Naruto the Movie 2: Legend of the Stone of Gelel as well.

In Part II, battling against Deidara, he wore full-length dark trousers, a long-sleeved red coat with a flaring hemline, and a purplish grey vest. He is also seen wearing Kazekage robes, and a simple black tunic-trousers suit, the latter one greatly resembling Kankurō's suit, and worn for the memorial of Elder Chiyo. All the time, he has been seen wearing some sort of black shoes.

Abilities
Sand Control

As the host of Shukaku, Gaara possessed the ability to manipulate sand, typically moving it through the air to serve various purposes. The amount of sand he can control at one time is fairly immense, as in Part II he is able to gather enough sand to cover Sunagakure as a shield. If sand is lacking in abundance, Gaara can break down the earth minerals in the ground to create more sand. While he can control any dry sand, ordinary sand requires more chakra to manipulate it, tiring him at a rapid rate. As a result, Gaara keeps his own chakra-enhanced sand with him at all times, in a calabash gourd also made out of sand on his back. Because this sand is already infused with his chakra, Gaara has a great deal more control over it, enabling stronger and faster attacks with it.

During battle, Gaara rarely moves, attacking with his sand from a single location, and rarely using taijutsu. When first introduced, his basic means of attacks is to first use Desert Coffin to capture, immobilize, and potentially suffocate an opponent with sand. Once the opponent is subdued, he uses Desert Funeral to cause the sand to crush the opponent with varying intensities. Though he comes up with other means of attack throughout the series, the "catch and crush" tactic remains at the center of his fighting style, as he attempted to use it four times on Kimimaro but Kimimaro's hardened layer of bone under his skin prevents Gaara from killing him, in Part 1, despite having new jutsu.

As the second element of his stationary combat style, Gaara has a number of sand-based defenses to be used in case an opponent gets too close. His primary defense is his Shield of Sand, an automatic sand shield that surrounds and protects him from damage whether he wants it to or not. Gaara can control the shield to some degree, strengthening it to steel-like quality or calling upon it to completely encase himself. While an effective defense, the shield can be overcome with high speed attacks, or simply be broken through with incredibly forceful strikes. Should this happen, Gaara has a layer of sand covering his body called the Armor of Sand. Although it's a useful secondary defense, the armor requires large amounts of chakra to remain active, and also has the side-effect of weighing Gaara down.

In addition to these basic methods of offense and defense, Gaara also has a number of miscellaneous attacks that, while capable of being an attack or a shield, are not limited to such purposes. By making a Sand Clone of himself, Gaara can have an ally to be used in battle, or as a mere distraction to be used to buy him time. Unlike most other clone jutsu in the series, the Sand Clone can retain its shape after more than one attack, and can even reform itself or capture an opponent upon being dispersed. With Desert Suspension, Gaara can use sand as a platform, to allow himself and others to float in the air. His Third Eye also allows him to create a floating eyeball of sand in any location, which he can see through as a means of spying, or to guide his attacks while completely enclosed by his defenses. Also, Gaara has mentioned being trained in various ninja arts and can efficiently use weapons such as a rope javelin, or jouhyou.

Despite the removal of Shukaku Gaara can still use his sand like before. According to Sasuke at the Kage Summit, Gaara's Absolute Defense is still alive and well. Not only that, but the sand has also massively improved in speed, defense and offense since last time. He could not only block the Raikage's kick seconds before it touched Amaterasu, but even block Amaterasu itself too. The offensive power of his sand forced Sasuke to defend with an Enton. It is still unknown if his sand defense is automatic or his own will.

Jinchūriki Transformations
In desperate situations, Gaara could take on the form of Shukaku by layering sand on his body, making him many times more powerful than he already is. Shukaku's personality grew more dominant during this transformation, increasing Gaara's homicidal tendencies. Once finished, Gaara assumed a human-sized version of Shukaku, wherein he relied on his brute strength to destroy everything around him.

If need be, Gaara could almost instantly create a life-sized version of Shukaku, should the human-sized form fail. In this form, he remained deep within the Shukaku copy, safe from harm, though unable to move. Gaara could also unleash the spirit of Shukaku through his Feigning Sleep Technique, which forced him to sleep, to allow the Shukaku copy to operate at its full potential. To do so, however, Gaara must emerge from within the copy, leaving him open to attack for the duration of the jutsu.

In time, he began gaining better control over Shukaku, such that he could suppress its personality by himself towards the end of the anime's filler arcs. By the time Part II began, Gaara was even capable of using Shukaku's arms to attack numerous times, without losing control of himself.

It is unclear whether Gaara can still be able to use Shukaku's arms or any jutsu that involves its traits such as Ultimately Hard Absolute Defense: Shield of Shukaku or Ultimately Hard Absolute Attack: Spear of Shukaku in combat

Abilities & Ninjutsu
Armor of sand : the user will coat him/herself with sand and reduce the damage of any attack execpt water based attacks and when the damage it to much, the armor will crack

Desert suspention : he user will make solid sand clouds in the air that the user can stand onto avoid being hit

Forced sleeping technique : this technique will force the user to go into a short coma

Sand tomb : the user will burry the opponet with sand, and/or send the opponet deep into the ground

Sand waterfall : the user will make a tsunami of sand burry his opponet

Sand coffin : the user will trap the user in a "coffin" of sand

Sand burriel : after the user traps the opponet in the sand coffin the user will crush the user in the sand

Suna bushin : the user will make a sand clone

Suna rain : the user will make a light sand cloud and the clound will turn into spike made of sand and rain on you

Sand shuriken : the user of this technique will make shurikens out of sand, and throw them

Giant sand funeral : the user will crush the opponet in the sand waterfall

Sphere of sand : the user will make a sphere of sand around his / her body that will protect them

Sand eye : the user will make a eye made of sand and will cover his / her eye so thay can see out of it

'''Ultimately Hard Absolute Attack: Spear of Shukaku : The Spear of Shukaku is the attack variant of the shield of shukaku Like the shield, Gaara crushes the hardest materials from the ground, this time in the form of a halberd, in the shape of the Shukaku's hand. Just like the shield which has yet to find anything that could break its defense, the halberd has yet to find a defense that it can't break through. '''

'''Ultimately Hard Absolute Defense: Shield of Shukaku : This defensive technique is formed by Gaara to create a toy-like replica of the shukaku that is roughly twice the size of himself. Because the replica is formed under extreme pressure and is built of the strongest minerals it is virtually indestructible, having yet to be penetrated by any force. The attack variant of the Shield of Shukaku is the Ultimately Hard Absolute Attack: Spear of Shukaku'''

'''Futon: Mugen Sajin Daitoppa : A technique used by Gaara after enter his half shukaku form. He first inhales air with the mouths on his face and all over his body, and blows it out along with a chakra-coated sand cloud. The powerful squall covers a large angle in a stream sufficient to knock trees down, and the physical damage from the sand defies the imagination. This technique is extremely efficient even against multiple enemies. '''