Gaara
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| Gaara | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (砂瀑の我愛羅 [Sabaku no Gaara]) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Gaara is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Naruto. He is known as "Gaara of the Sand" in the Viz translation, "Gaara of the Desert" in the English anime, and "Sabaku no Gaara" (砂瀑の我愛羅, "Gaara of the Sand Waterfall") in the original Japanese (Sabaku 砂瀑 means "sand waterfall", but sabaku 砂漠 means "desert", thus the more common "Gaara of the Desert".) He is also the Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure.
Contents
Part IBackground
 Gaara is the son of the Fourth Kazekage and the brother of Temari and Kankurō,his older siblings. As a child, the one-tailed Shukaku was sealed within Gaara during birth on the order of his father. This was done with a possession jutsu by one of Sunagakure's elders, a woman named Chiyo. Because a sacrifice was needed, Gaara's mother, Karura, was used. Before she died, Karura cursed Sunagakure, hoping Gaara would avenge her death. The reason Gaara's own father inflicted such a fate on him was due to the country's feudal lord slowly weakening the village, minimizing their ability to defend themselves. The feudal lord even began offering jobs to other hidden villages rather than his own. Seeing what was happening to his village, the Fourth Kazekage realized that their ninja would have to be of much higher quality than ordinary ninja to compete, and Gaara was to be their ultimate weapon. Gaara was trained by his father, but raised mainly by his uncle Yashamaru. Being host to Shukaku gave Gaara almost instinctive control over sand. In addition, the sand itself guarded him, making Gaara a near-impossible person to touch. For six years, everyone in the village feared Gaara, with the exception of Yashamaru. For a time, it seemed as if Yashamaru was the only person who cared for Gaara. Gaara's attempts to fit in often led to disaster, leading his father to begin ordering assassination attempts. Gaara had become, in the Kazekage's eyes, a failed experiment and too much of a threat to the other villagers to be allowed to live. Eventually, after quite a few failed attempts, the Kazekage ordered Yashamaru to kill him. Gaara mortally wounded the assassin before he knew it was Yashamaru. Saddened by the unfortunate incident, Gaara tried to apologize and ran next to Yashamaru. Yashamaru then revealed to Gaara that he never loved him. In fact, despite trying to love him, Yashamaru always resented Gaara for taking the life of his beloved sister, who was Gaara's mother. Yashamaru also revealed the source of Gaara's name: 我を愛する修羅, (Ware wo ai suru shura, "a self-loving carnage"). Before Yashamaru died, he opened his vest to reveal explosive notes, and gave his final words: "Please die." Gaara survived, protected by the sand. Gaara's mother had resented the village for using her and her son as a sacrifice and a weapon, respectively, and cursed Gaara for putting her in so much pain. After realizing that nobody loved him, Gaara used his sand to create the tattoo on his forehead (愛, "love") as a symbol of a "demon loving only himself." For the next six years, Gaara would be the victim of almost constant assassination attempts, all ordered by his father. His entire village hated and feared him for the awful power of the spirit sealed within his body; his own father, before later realizing that Gaara could be an effective tool, wanted him dead. As a result, Gaara became emotionally withdrawn, all but silent, and consumed with a bitter loathing for everyone but himself. 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 (anyone who was not himself). His insomnia, forced upon him by the fact that the demon inside him would eat away at his personality if he were to fall asleep, made Gaara further unstable. Gaara's childhood is almost identical to Naruto's, albeit more unfortunate due to his lack of anyone to call a friend. Both were lonely and the desired to be liked, loved and acknowledged as an individual, free of others' prejudices — they are 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 (more precisely: recognition) 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 and Team 7 to acknowledge him, Gaara never had anyone to bond with and did not understand the concept of fighting for anything other than himself until his confrontation with Naruto. Beforehand, both boys tried to gain positive attention by being cheerful (in Naruto's case, overly so), kind, and caring, and both had little success. On one occasion, Gaara used his powers to retrieve a ball for a group of children playing nearby and injured them unintentionally with sand when they ran away from him in fear. Later, little Gaara brought medicated ointment to the house of the girl whose wounds were the worst, but she slammed the door in his face, calling him a monster. Gaara and the ShukakuAs the host of Shukaku, Gaara has the ability to manipulate sand at will. The sand also protects him from harm automatically, regardless of his will, and is even compacted in a strong layer on his body, making Gaara almost unable to use taijutsu. This, however, does not mean he is incapable of it, though he only physically attacks someone at one point throughout the entire series. In that instance, he throws Temari away from him as she tries to convince him to run. Though a minimal exhibition of skill, he does throw her with an inhuman amount of strength.Gaara almost always carries a gourd on his back. However, instead of water being carried in it, the gourd contains an abundant amount of sand soaked in the blood of those he has killed and is further enhanced with chakra. The gourd itself is also made from sand. Although Gaara can control any sand, and can even make sand himself using the minerals in the ground, his personal sand is much easier to control. With this sand, not only does Gaara always have his own sand supply, but his attacks also increase in both speed and power. Gaara's jutsu are all sand-based and, although most are simple offensive and defensive jutsu, can be used for a variety of purposes, including floating in the air (Sabaku Fuyū (Desert Suspension)) and spying (Daisan no Me (Third Eye)). While fighting, Gaara often uses a combination of Sabaku Kyū (Desert Coffin) followed by Sabaku Sōsō (Desert Funeral). Although most of his attacks are small-scale, Gaara can wreak havoc with his Ryūsa Bakuryū (Quicksand in the Style of a Waterfall). Gaara's main defense is his Suna no Tate (Shield of Sand). This shield protects Gaara from all harm, even against his will, but can still be defeated with great enough speed and strength (as demonstrated first by Rock Lee and again by Uchiha Sasuke). If his Shield of Sand fails, Gaara still has his Suna no Yoroi (Armor of Sand). This is a layer of highly compacted sand that is wrapped around Gaara's body. Although it gives Gaara an almost ultimate defense, it takes a large toll on Gaara's chakra and his stamina. Because of this, Gaara can create a (nearly) impenetrable sphere of sand instead for an absolute defense, providing a stronger defense that uses less chakra, but also confines Gaara to the location of the sphere.
 In desperate situations, Gaara can actually take on the form of the Shukaku, making him many times more powerful than he already is. He does this by layering sand on his body to take the shape of Shukaku. His sphere of sand is used in conjunction with this so he won't be interrupted. Shukaku's personality grows more dominant during this transformation, making Gaara even more homicidal than normal. The process seems to take quite a while, even without interruption. Once finished, Gaara assumes a human-sized version of Shukaku's form. Gaara can also create a life-sized version of Shukaku if his human-sized form doesn't work. He remains connected to the Shukaku copy, with his entire lower body sunken into its forehead. Strangely, this version of Shukaku can be created almost instantly, despite being of slightly greater size than Gamabunta. Finally, Gaara can unleash the spirit of Shukaku through his Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu (Forced Sleep Technique), allowing the copy to operate at its full potential. Chūnin Exam arcDuring the Forest of Death segment of the Chūnin exam, Gaara's team reaches the final destination first, beating the previous record by an extremely large margin (over 4 hours). Gaara's thirst for blood (no doubt from Shukaku's influence) is also demonstrated for the first time as he kills the Rain ninja Shigure, who had attacked Gaara to no avail; followed quickly by Shigure's teammates Baiu and Midare, despite their pleas for mercy.
 In the preliminary matches, Gaara is matched against Rock Lee. This is the first time that Gaara has ever been hurt (although he later revealed that he had his sand armor on the whole time, so he didn't feel anything). Rock Lee uses his Renge technique (Reverse Lotus in the English manga) to break through Gaara's defenses at the cost of his own body. Gaara's defenses then nullify all of Lee's powerful attacks, with the exception of Lee's final attack utilizing five of the eight chakra gates. It is only Gaara's gourd that allows him to avoid a fatal blow. In the end, a prone Gaara uses his sand to crush Lee's arm and leg, critically injuring him. He would have killed Lee, were it not for Might Guy stepping in to protect his student. When Gaara asks why Guy interfered, Guy replied, "He's my lovable, precious protégé." While Gaara glares at Guy, Baki thinks to himself: "...those words are beyond the scope of Gaara's understanding...". Gaara blows his sand armor off saying "Forget it..." and walks away as he is declared the winner. In the final round matches, Gaara was to play a major part in the attack on Konohagakure, which was engineered by Orochimaru. Gaara was matched up against Uchiha Sasuke, possibly another manipulation by Orochimaru (then impersonating the Kazekage), to force Sasuke to activate his curse seal. The plan was to release Shukaku inside Konoha simultaneously with Orochimaru's giant snakes spearheading an attack from outside. Gaara, however, was injured before he could release Shukaku.
 Following a long chase through a forest between Sasuke and the rest of Team 7 (minus Kakashi), Gaara eventually begins calling upon Shukaku. Sasuke is the first to fight Gaara, but proves to be no match for him, even with the help of his cursed seal. In the end, it is Naruto who defeats Gaara, even after Gaara assumes his ultimate form with the Shukaku's spirit unleashed. Naruto puzzled Gaara by fighting for those he cared about, which Gaara simply couldn't understand. Naruto's undying devotion to his friends also surprised Gaara, as Naruto literally crawled inch-by-inch to make sure that Gaara was defeated, despite Gaara's protests. While they were both on the ground, Gaara realized that Naruto's strength came from the desire to protect his friends. When Gaara's siblings arrived, he told them not to fight anymore, and they left. As Gaara and his siblings fled, Gaara openly apologized, which surprised and confused them. Thanks to Naruto's influence, the defeat proved to be a major turning point for Gaara. Sasuke Retrieval arcGaara later appeared as an ally after the Fifth Hokage asked them to assist the team sent to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke. Gaara arrived in time to rescue Rock Lee from Kaguya Kimimaro, taking over the battle due to the clear difference in ability between Lee and Kimimaro.Gaara demonstrates an increased array of abilities which he obviously developed in his time away from the Chūnin Exam. The first is Suna Shigure (Sand Drizzle), a cloud of sand in the sky which rains down on his target, which he uses in combination with sand-foot-binding to trap the agile Kimimaro for his Desert Funeral. The second is Ryūsa Bakuryū (Quicksand in the Style of a Waterfall), a giant 40-foot tall wave of sand, which he uses shortly after Kimimaro clambers out of the first Desert Funeral relatively unscathed. Having flooded the entire area with sand, Gaara attempts to finish his opponent with a bigger version of his Desert Funeral, Sabaku Taisō (Desert Imperial Funeral), crushing with much more colossal force. His final new jutsu is his , which creates a giant, round, sand figure of the raccoon-dog sealed inside of him (of course the figure looks very different from the Shukaku seen at the Chūnin Exam, more akin to a painted toy of the demon). As well as this, he uses an unnamed jutsu to bury Kimimaro 200 metres underground. Although Gaara held his ground against Kimimaro for a while, Kimimaro almost killed Gaara with Dance of the Seedling Ferns. The attack involved jumping out of his forest of bones for a sneak attack on Gaara's blind spot, with no chance of his sand shield protecting him (it took the absolute defense to stop that attack previously). Before he could kill Gaara, however, Kimimaro died from his terminal disease. Gaara comments on Kimimaro's dedication to Orochimaru afterwards, saying that loneliness is more powerful than the good or evilness of the people you care about. No one can defeat loneliness, no matter how strong you are. Part II
 New personalityWhen Uzumaki Naruto returned to Konoha after his two-and-a-half year training under Jiraiya, he was shocked to find that Gaara had become the Fifth Kazekage. He is still very confused about life, though he has taken a slightly more positive approach. Another big change in Gaara that is not meant to be overlooked is his personality. To his credit as a character, he no longer acts hostile when in the presence of others. He acts friendly towards his siblings, and he values other people's lives over his own. Gaara has become much more open, and he is willing to talk to others, especially his brother Kankurō, about his problems and dreams. He also seems to have many admirers now, where he was once shunned.Rescue Gaara arcGaara is soon targeted by Akatsuki, who sought the demon within him. Though Gaara is able to fend off one of their agents, Deidara, rather effectively (actually crushing one of Deidara's arms during the battle), Deidara manages to capture Gaara by threatening to destroy Gaara's village with a massive clay bomb (his specialty). This allowed Deidara to mix a clay bomb with Gaara's sand without Gaara noticing, thus knocking Gaara unconscious once it went off.Though Naruto and many others do their best to save Gaara, they do not arrive in time to stop Akatsuki's extraction of Shukaku. This resulted in Gaara's death, but Chiyo resurrected Gaara with her life-restoring technique in combination with Naruto's chakra, bringing Gaara back to life at the cost of her own. Even after losing Shukaku, Gaara can still control sand, but it is unknown how strong his sand-based attacks are and if he still has his automatic defense. Before Naruto left to go back home, he and Gaara finally shook hands, symbolizing their friendship and Gaara's change in character. Trivia
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