:He usually has a thin layer of sand covering his entire body to act as a shell, and the sand automatically reacts to prevent him from being injured. Nevertheless, he bleeds when he uses the sand to carve the "ai" kanji on his forehead, and later on freaks out when Sasuke's Chidori breaks through his shoulder, and he sees his own blood. He also bleeds during his fight with Naruto near the end of the arc.