Gaara

**Gaara** is a shinobi of Sunagakure. Before he was born, Shukaku was sealed within him, resulting in his mother's death. Regarded as a monster by the village and with nobody to love him, Gaara came to despise the world and began relying only on his own strength, gaining the title **Gaara of the Desert**. After his defeat by Naruto Uzumaki and his unwavering dedication to his friends, Gaara begins emulating Naruto's method and changes Suna's opinions of him. He eventually becomes the village's **Fifth Kazekage** (*Literally meaning*: Fifth Wind Shadow), a position he maintains even after Shukaku was removed from his body by Akatsuki.

## Profile and Stats

* **Alias**: Gaara of the Sand, Gaara of the Desert, Fifth Kazekage
* **Origin**:
* **Age**: 17
* **Birthday**: January 19
* **Classification**:
* **Gender**: Male
* **Height**: 166.1 cm (5'5")
* **Weight**: 50.9 kg (112 lb)
* **Skin Color**: Fair skin
* **Eye Color**: Light turquoise
* **Hair Color**: Red
* **Attire**:
* **Alignment**:
* **Status**:
* **Powers and Abilities**: Control sand, create sand
* **Standard Equipment**: Gourd
* **Notable Attacks/Techniques**:
* **Weaknesses**: Naruto ig

### Power Ranking

* **Class**: **Master level**
* **Attack Potency**:
* **Speed**:
* **Lifting Strength**:
* **Striking Strength**:
* **Durability**:
* **Stamina**:
* **Range**:
* **Intelligence**:
* **Fighting Ability**:

## Appearance

Gaara is a fairly tall and slim young man (about .1 inch taller than Naruto despite their height similarity), with fair skin and short, spiky, red hair with a striking resemblance to his father. He also has pale blue-green eyes and has no distinct pupils or eyebrows. He has two very notable in his appearance traits: firstly, he has tanuki-like black eye rings, having them since his birth. Secondly, he carved the kajin "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 kajin more visible.

Gaara wears a crimson long-sleeved coat with flaring hemlines and slits on the lower half of the front and back, full-length dark trousers, with a pair of laces on each leg, respectively a few inches below the waist and knees, a gray holster vest held in place by a single strap over his left shoulder and by two buckled belts which he uses to carry his Sand Gourd. He also wears another pair of casually worn belts around his waist, and wears black shinobi sandals. He even wears the standard Kazekage robes, and a simple black pants suit during formal meetings.

## Personality

Gaara is generally a calm, collected and serious individual. He is also a man of few words that generally makes him soft-spoken, but is genuinely caring and protective for his siblings, friends and village as the Kazekage, and is willing to sacrifice his own life to protect them. Though he can be ruthless against his opponents, Gaara can show mercy to those who aren't worth killing, only killing those who are believed to dangerous and would threaten the peace of his village.

Gaara was consistently warm to others during his early life. Although most of Suna's villagers feared and despised him, he was able to persevere due to the love that he felt from Yashamaru and his mother. His father, Rasa, believed these niceties were impeding Gaara's development as a jinchuriki and as such had both taken from him: he ordered Yashamaru to try and kill Gaara and, if he were to fail, to tell Gaara that neither he nor Gaara's mother had ever loved him. Rasa's plan succeeded, as following Yashamaru's death Gaara stopped trying to connect with people. Rather, Gaara focused on himself, driven solely by his own desires and his own survival.

During his years of caring only about himself, Gaara becomes infamously known as "Gaara of the Desert". Though he outwardly appears calm, "Gaara of the Sand Waterfall" is deeply unbalanced, completely unmoved by others' pleas for mercy and, in certain situations, driven mad with bloodlust. This behaviour is partly due to Shukaku, whose voice Gaara alone can hear in his head, who encourages violence at every opportunity, and who torments Gaara with threats to take control of his body if he falls asleep, thus making Gaara an insomniac. But Shukaku is not wholly responsible: Gaara simply hates other people for existing, believing that so long as they are alive they are a threat to his own life. His purpose, therefore, is to kill anyone who is strong or who he perceives as similar to himself, as only by killing them can he assert his own existence. With those who do not interest him, Gaara is typically withdrawn and silent. When he must interact with them, he does so with open disregard for their feelings and often threatens to kill them, even his own siblings, if they become too much of a nuisance to him.

Gaara's background is very similar to that of Naruto Uzumaki: both have been jinchuriki since the day they were born, both were hated by almost everyone in their village, and both were raised without a parent's love. But whereas Gaara eventually gave up on other people, Naruto continued trying to win the acknowledgement of his peers and village, pursuits he eventually succeeds at. Whereas Gaara seeks strength only in protecting himself, Naruto seeks strength in protecting the friends he makes. When the two fight during the Konoha Crush Arc and Naruto defeats Gaara, Gaara takes this as proof that his own choices in life were wrong; he had surrendered to his difficult circumstances too easily. From that point onward he starts moving away from "Gaara of the Desert" and starts emulating Naruto instead, improving his relationships with his siblings, making friends within Suna and without, and finding something that he's willing to give his life to protect. His relationship with Shukaku did improve somewhat when he told the tailed beast he used to hate it, but was grateful to the beast because it was he was able to meet Naruto due to the painful life Shukaku made him ensure.

Gaara becomes Suna's Kazekage by the start of Part II, signalling the success of his emulation of Naruto. Gaara gains a new purpose in life by exerting all his energies to serving the village and those who live there; although he still has his detractors, most of the villagers adore him and will do what they can to help him reform Suna and the rest of the world. Even this reform is very much inspired by Naruto, as he wishes for the Five Kage and their hidden villages to cooperate and benefit from each other in the same way that he has benefited from Naruto's influence. Gaara believes in forgiving past differences and strife, abandoning antiquated concepts of "honour" that only promote isolation, and serving a purpose greater than one's self. As in Suna, this unity that Gaara advocates is slow to catch on, for a time only gaining support from Naruto's own Konohagakure. By the time of the Fourth Shinobi World War, however, the Five Kage are convinced by Gaara and this in turn starts trickling down into the larger Allied Shinobi Forces.

Gaara feels indebted to Naruto for how significantly he's changed since his time as "Gaara of the Desert"; he considers Naruto his closest friend and believes all the tragedies of his childhood were worthwhile since they led him to meet Naruto. He takes part in the Fourth Shinobi World War not simply because he believes Akatsuki must be stopped, but because by doing so he can keep Naruto safe. Gaara's desire to protect Naruto at times means acting against Naruto's wishes: he knows that Naruto wants to redeem Sasuke Uchiha, but will kill Sasuke if Naruto's own leniency places himself at risk; he knows Naruto would want to participate in the Fourth Shinobi World War to protect his loved ones, but feels Naruto would be safer if he were forbidden from doing so. Just like before, however, Naruto's desire to protect his friends gets through to Gaara, as he advises that Naruto should at least consider for himself what he can do for Sasuke and accepts his participation in the war after realising he made an error in judgement. Gaara often cites his own experiences as "Gaara of the Sand Waterfall" during his interactions with Sasuke and others who suffer hate and loneliness, explaining the missteps that he didn't realise he'd made until he met Naruto so that they, in turn, might realise their own. His words do not always convince them, but Gaara is able to empathise with their choices and, as with Sasuke, he even wonders if Naruto could get through to them, just as Naruto got through to him.

## Abilities

**Sand**: As a host of Shukaku, Gaara possesses the ability to freely manipulate sand. The focus of his fighting style, his control and skill is formidable, being able to control immense amounts at one time for feats such as fully transforming into Shukaku or raising a tsunami of sand. While Gaara has become capable of controlling any sand (whether it is saturated with water or mixed with gold), he always keeps his own chakra-infused sand with him in a calabash gourd also made out of sand on his back, giving him a greater attack-rate. If sand is lacking in abundance, he can break down the earth minerals in the ground to create more sand. Gaara's sand is also the only ninjutsu-based substance that cannot be absorbed. Gaara rarely moves in battle, attacking with his sand from one location. His most basic attack method is to capture and immobilize his target before imploding the sand to crush them. Exploiting the malleable nature of sand, he has come up with several "catch and crush" tactics. The second element of Gaara's combat style include powerful sand defences, also known as the "**Absolute Defense**". His primary defense is the Sand Shield, which forms a barrier to surround and protect him automatically. He can also harden his sand to a more steel-like quality or make it completely surround him. While an effective defence, the shield can be overcome with very high-speed or sharp attacks. Should this happen, Gaara can create a thin layer of sand over his skin to soften blows. However, it requires large amounts of chakra to remain active, and has the side-effect of weighing Gaara down. He can also crush the hardest minerals in the ground together to create a shield in the shape of Shukaku's body or, a spear in the shape of its arm for combat.

It is unknown whether or not Gaara's automatic sand defence was ever truly Shukaku's doing as both Rasa and Yashamaru have stated that Gaara's mother, Karura is the true source, as she loved him and vowed to always protect him. Gaara also has a number of miscellaneous techniques, such as producing a sand clone to aid him in battle. Unlike most clone techniques, the sand clone can reform itself after being hit or capture an opponent upon being dispersed. Gaara can also use sand as a platform to allow himself and others to float in the air, as well as create a floating eyeball of sand in any location, which he can see through as a means of spying or guiding his attacks while his sight is obstructed. He can also use his sand to detect others that come into contact with it, even from far away, such as the disappearing Mu and Gengetsu's Giant Clam.
In Part II, Gaara's improved prowess allowed him to gather enough sand to shield the entire village of Suna from Deidara's "C3" the instant it detonated. Despite losing Shukaku, his sand manipulation remains stronger than ever before, with his Absolute Defense earning praise from Sasuke and Naruto at different points. It could block the attacks of the Fourth Raikage and Amaterasu (without being burned from the latter), protect Gaara and others from a cave-in, assist in stopping a giant meteorite, and later block a barrage of strikes from Madara's senjutsu-enhanced humanoid Susanoo's sword. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Gaara's father initially believed his son had fully transformed into Shukaku in order to perform such feats. Gaara could quickly maneuver his sand above his father's Gold Dust, despite its superior weight, and later integrate the gold into his sand. He can also insert his sand into an opponent's body through their open wounds, and use it to control and restrict their movement.