Gaara

Gaara is a fictional character in the manga and anime Naruto. He is known as Gaara of the Sand in the Viz translation, 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.)

His childhood

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Six-year-old Gaara with his Uncle Yashamaru.

Gaara is the youngest son of the Fourth Kazekage, thus having Temari and Kankurō as his older siblings. Because of Sunagakure’s weakened state, the Fourth Kazekage ordered one of Suna’s elders, Chiyo, to use a possession jutsu to seal the Ichibi Shukaku into Gaara, in hopes of making his son into the ultimate weapon against outside attacks on the village. Because of this possession, Gaara’s mother, Karura, died while giving birth. Before she died, Karura cursed Sunagakure, hoping Gaara would avenge her death.

Gaara was trained by his father, but raised mainly by his uncle Yashamaru. For six years, Gaara was feared by his family and the other villagers and believed that Yashamaru was the only one who loved him. However, when Gaara was six years old, Gaara's father the Kazekage ordered Yashamaru to assassinate him. 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. Gaara mortally wounded the assassin before he knew the assassin was in fact Yashamaru. Before he died, Yashamaru revealed to Gaara that he never did love him. In fact, despite trying to love him, Yashamaru always resented Gaara for taking away the life of his beloved sister and Gaara's mother, Karura. 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"). Gaara's mother had resented the village for using her and her son as a sacrifice for a weapon, 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 (ai, "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.

Gaara, like Naruto, is a jinchūriki, or the (unwilling) host of a bijū. 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.

In fact, Gaara's situation is almost identical to Naruto's, albeit more unfortunate. Loneliness and the desire to be liked, loved and acknowledged as an individual, free of others' prejudices — they are themselves, not the demons they were forced to "contain" — drives both 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. In the absence of others' acknowledgment, he could compensate by valuing only himself to the exclusion of everyone else — an extreme form of narcissism. Furthermore, while Naruto eventually had Iruka and Team 7 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 "bakemono" (monster).

His abilities

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Gaara.

Gaara has the ability to manipulate sand. Because of Shukaku, the sand also protects him from harm automatically, regardless of using Suna no Tate (Shield of Sand). This basically makes Gaara almost unable to use Taijutsu. 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 killed and is further enhanced with chakra. Although Gaara can control any sand, and can even make sand himself using the minerals in the ground, he can control the sand in his gourd best. With this sand, not only does Gaara always have his own sand supply, 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 (The Coffin of Crushing Sand) followed by Sabaku Sōsō (Imploding Sand 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 eventually Uchiha Sasuke). If his Suna no Tate fails, Gaara still has his Suna no Yoroi (Armour of Sand). This is a layer of highly compacted sand, 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 use the Sphere of Sand instead for absolute defense, provinding a stronger defense that costs less chakra, yet confines Gaara to the location of the sphere.

Chūnin Exam arc

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Gaara in the preliminaries of the 3rd test of the Chūnin exam, with his sand armor cracked from Rock Lee’s attack.

During the Forest of Death segment of the chūnin exam, Gaara's team reaches the final destination, beating the previous record by an extremely large margin. 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 pleading for mercy.

In the preliminary matches, Gaara is matched against Rock Lee.This is the first time that Gaara has ever been hurt. With Rock Lee using his Renge he breaks through Gaara's defenses but, at the cost of his body. Gaara's defenses then nullify all of Lee's powerful attacks in what is by far the most destructive and exciting matchup seen thusfar. In the end, a prone Gaara uses his sand to crush Lee's arm and leg, critically injuring him and narrowly winning the match.

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, but Shukaku proved to be too unpredictable. He was eventually defeated in battle by Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto puzzled Gaara by fighting for those he cared about. What surprised Gaara was Naruto's undying devotion to his friends. Upon witnessing Naruto literally inch and crawl his way to make sure that Gaara was defeated while they were both on the ground, Gaara realized that Naruto's strength came from the desire to protect his friends. As Gaara and his siblings fled, Gaara openly apologized, which surprised them.

Sasuke Retrieval arc

Gaara 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. Although he overpowered Gaara, Kimimaro died from his terminal disease just moments away from stabbing the exhausted Gaara. 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. If anything Gaara felt sorry for his opponent as he comments that Kimimaro was the same as Naruto and himself in a way.

Naruto II Arc

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Gaara, as Kazekage in Chapter 248 (Manga)

When Uzumaki Naruto returned to Konohagakure after his two and a half year training under Jiraiya, he was shocked to find that Gaara had become the Fifth Kazekage. Gaara defended his village from an attack by Akatsuki who were actually after the Shukaku. Gaara was defeated by Deidara when he chose to protect his village over himself, giving an opening to Deidara. After being captured, Shukaku was extracted from his body. This led to his death, but Chiyo was able to use her life-restoring technique, and Naruto gave her some of his chakra to perform the technique. It brought Gaara back to life at the cost of her own. It has been confirmed that he can still control sand to some extent, but it is unknown how strong his sand-based attacks are and if he still has his automatic defense. In the manga, Gaara now seems to have many admirers, much to the annoyance (and jealousy) of Naruto.

Another big change in Gaara 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. In fact, he has friendly conversations with Kankuro (who had been afraid to even be near him during the Chunin exams), in which he is actually opening up to his older brother. No longer does he feel very alone, or have the urge to kill in order to feel alive. Now he believes in the worth of other peoples lives and will sacrifice his life in order to save the village. A big change, he credits to Uzumaki Naruto.

Trivia

• The Viz English manga misspelled his name as "Gara" when the character first appeared in the pages of the United States Shonen Jump. This error has been corrected in the graphic novels.
• Gaara is a Persian word for an extremely sour confection.
• The darkness around Gaara's eyes is said to be a sign of his near-lifelong insomnia, but also could possibly represent Shukaku, a tanuki, as only his eyes seem to be affected by his insomnia, not the rest of his body (similar to how Naruto's cheek "whiskers" represents the Kyuubi, the kitsune). The markings are also reminiscent of the black kohl eyeliner worn by ancient Egyptians to keep the sun out of their eyes, and could also perhaps be an allusion to his desert heritage.
• According to the official databook his favourite foods are gizzard and salted tongue; his least favorite foods are Yōkan (sweet bean jelly) and marron glaces. His favourite phrase is 自愛 (Ji ai, "Love oneself").
• In the Viz translation of the manga, it is mistakenly stated that Gaara has brown hair. In both the anime and the original manga, he has red hair, (this reason could be because of cultural distinctions in perceptions of color). Another possibility is that it is simply one of the the many mistranslations(done purposely or accidentally) that plague the Viz translation of Naruto.
• Apparently Gaara does not have any eyebrows.
• Coincidentally (if not intentionally), the name "Gaara" resembles the Arabic word "Zaara" meaning "desert".
• In the weekly Shonen Jump fans have voted Gaara as first in looks after Naruto's two and a half year time skip.
• He considers Naruto his best friend, as Naruto changed his outlook on life and understands the burden of carrying a demon inside. Naruto's dream to be Hokage also motivated Gaara to become Kazekage. This is emphasized when the two finally shake hands after Gaara was rescued from Akatsuki. They also see each other as rivals, as Naruto was the first to defeat Gaara, And Gaara has been the first to be a kage.