Rasa

**Rasa** was the Fourth Kazekage of Sunagakure and the father of Gaara (who is the Fifth Kazekage), Temari, and Kankurō.

## Physical Appearance

Rasa had auburn hair, dark eyes and was usually depicted with a very stern look on his face. He wore a simple black jacket and pants with mesh armour underneath. He carried a small canister strapped to his hip. As he got older, he gained two creases around his mouth. When using his Gold Dust, dark markings appeared around his eyes that bore strong resemblance to Gaara's own dark markings.

## Personality

Befitting his status and responsibility as leader, Rasa cared deeply about the well-being of his village, so much so that he was thinking about to allying with Orochimaru to destroy the Hidden Leaf to bring Suna's resources back up, despite knowing Orochimaru is a highly dangerous criminal. This turned out to be a fatal mistake on Rasa's behalf, as he and his bodyguards were betrayed and assassinated by Orochimaru. Upon returning from the dead, he hoped that the Third Raikage was right about the next generation being strong enough to stop them from their mindless actions. The *Naruto* anime extends on his ruthless nature as a leader, where he sent Pakura to her death for the betterment of the village.

He loved his wife and children dearly, but was also torn between his duties as the village leader and those as a father. This conflict was seen when Gaara was deemed a failure by the council, he was visibly disappointed and ultimately decided to give his son one last chance before deciding whether or not to eliminate him. To this end, he was willing to set an elaborate and potentially heartbreaking lie to see his son's determination. Seeing the failure, he chose the village's safety over his son.

Given his eventual willingness to sacrifice and later ally with Orochimaru for the sake of Sunagakure and the greater good are evidence to suggest that Rasa had a strong utilitarian mindset. He also had a habit of putting "value" on things which might be an allusion to the fact that he used gold dust.

After being reincarnated and seeing his son has become Kazekage and even formed strong bonds with his friends, he comes to regret the horrible life he put Gaara through, solemnly thinking he wasn't worthy to be called his father. Upon being defeated, he acknowledges Gaara had long surpassed him, and tearfully entrusts the safety and future of his village to his son and was happy he was given a chance to reconcile with him.

## Abilities

**Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai**: With profound research and knowledge of ninjutsu and with exceptional talent, Rasa learned the Third Kazekage’s kekkei genkai Magnet Release, a simultaneous usage of earth and wind elements. When in use, it caused dark rings to appear around Rasa's eyes, similar to the permanent ones around those of his youngest son. He utilised this ability to manipulate quantities of Gold Dust, being capable of summoning vast amounts of these particles as necessary seemingly from the immediate vicinity around him, over relatively short spans of time. When used offensively, Rasa tended to form dense, fast-moving surges that could range in size from narrow streams to colossal waves, intended to injure a target by violently crashing the compacted material into them. However, when used defensively, he instead created thick barricades of the dust that were durable enough to block large blockades of sand. He was also able to use the Third Eye technique. Due to the fact that gold is heavier than sand, he was able to use this additional weight to subdue even Shukaku whenever it went on a rampage and later stopped a massive amount of sand during his battle with his son, simply by mixing the two substances together.

**Immense Chakra Power**: