Characters: Naruto-Hidden Sand Village |
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Gaara of the Desert is a young shinobi from the Hidden Sand Village who makes his first appearance in the Chunin Exam arc as Naruto's Evil Counterpart. Like Naruto, Gaara had a Tailed Beast, the maniacal sand spirit Shukaku, sealed in him when he was a young child by his father, the Fourth Kazekage. The Kazekage's intent was for him to become a weapon for the village, but after several years declared the experiment a failure and repeatedly tried to have the child assassinated. However, Shukaku's power protected Gaara from all harm. Gaara eventually grew to enjoy killing the assassins his father sent after him, reasoning that only through killing could he validate his own existence.
Gaara speaks in a dull monotone at all times except when he's in a killing frenzy. (This is later explained by the fact that Shukaku eats away at his consciousness when he sleeps, so he's become a chronic insomniac.) Even after his Heel Face Turn, he is quiet, creepy, and not very social.
At the end of the Chunin Exam arc, Gaara faces off against Naruto, who beats him with The Power Of Friendship. The battle causes Gaara to reconsider his philosophy. He vows to protect the ones close to him rather than attempt to destroy them, and makes it his goal to win the trust and admiration of his village. Gaara feels indebted to Naruto for the insight.
Later, Gaara and his siblings appear as allies in a Big Damn Heroes moment at the end of the Sasuke Retrieval arc. Gaara is matched up with the strongest opponent, Kimimaro, and battled him to a draw before Kimimaro's terminal illness took his life.
All of Gaara's jutsu revolve around sand. He carries a gourd filled with it at all times and can control its movements instinctively. Shukaku, wanting to protect its vessel, always moves the sand as a shield to protect Gaara (even when he doesn't want it to), which wards off most blows, although it can be defeated with sufficient speed. (Before the main storyline, Gaara had never been injured thanks to the sand shield.) In addition to this defense, Gaara can wear the sand as armor, although this is heavier and requires more chakra and effort to maintain. His main battle tactic is to remain stationary and lash out at his opponent with waves of sand from a distance, relying on the sand shield and armor to defend him. When he has finally captured his opponent with the sand, he can use his signature offensive jutsu, Desert Funeral, to encase his enemy in sand and compress them, killing them instantly.
In Shippuden, Gaara has become the Fifth Kazekage. The first major arc of the new series revolves around him, as he is defeated and captured by the Akatsuki, who attempt to extract Shukaku from his body as part of their mission to collect all nine Tailed Beasts. The reformed Team 7, as well as Team Guy and Chiyo of the Sand Village, mount a rescue mission. The Akatsuki manages to delay the rescuers long enough to extract the spirit, killing its host; however, Chiyo sacrifices her own life to revive him. It's unknown to what degree, if any, his abilities have been affected.
Recently seen going to the meetings of the Kages called by the Raikage with his siblings. He still retains decent control of his sand abilities, but it is still unknown whether he can still use large scale jutsus.
Kankuro is the second child of the Fourth Kazekage and Gaara's older brother. He tries to control Gaara's homicidal tendencies as best he can, but fears the younger boy's abilities and is thus fairly ineffectual in that respect. He's pretty confident and doesn't have a whole lot of respect for other people; his first appearance in the series sees him bullying Naruto's young friend Konohamaru. Kankuro always wears the robes and face paint of a theater performer, and speaks in that fashion in the original Japanese.
Kankuro fights Shino during the Chunin Exam arc and is defeated, but not before poisoning the latter. He reappears along with his siblings at the end of the Sasuke Retrieval arc, saving Kiba and easily killing Sakon and Ukon.
Kankuro is a puppeteer, which means he fights with mechanical contraptions, controlling them with strings of chakra that he can extend from his fingertips. Puppets are unliving machines, so they can't use chakra, but each of them is outfitted with an array of weapons and poisons. Kankuro can also use the Substitution jutsu to seamlessly switch places with his puppets, causing his enemies to attack the puppets instead. He picks up a new puppet with each new appearance. All of Kankuro's puppets were designed by Sasori before he joined the Akatsuki.
In Shippuden, Kankuro is Worfed by Sasori after Gaara is defeated and abducted by the Akatsuki, giving Sakura a chance to show off her new medical skills, but he managed to get a piece of Sasori's clothing which lets Team 7 track them down. He spends the rest of the arc recovering from his injuries and arguing with the village elders to focus on looking for Gaara instead of choosing his replacement.
Recently, he has revealed that he's acquired a new puppet body: Sasori himself. Later he goes on to defeat the revived Sasori when they face off a second time, gaining the puppets of Sasori's parents in the process.
Temari is the oldest child and only daughter of the Fourth Kazekage, and the older sister of Gaara and Kankuro. She can be somewhat crude and upfront, but she's also a strong ninja who despises war.
Like Shikamaru, she's a master strategist, and most of their appearances have been together. She is defeated by him during the Chunin Exam arc (even though Shikamaru technically forfeited to her), and saves him from Tayuya during the Sasuke Retrieval arc. In Shippuden, she and Shikamaru work on the upcoming Chuunin Exams together. When Naruto sees them walking together, he believes Shikamaru and Temari are dating. Similar to scene a few years earlier, when Kakashi thought the same thing while watching Asuma and Kurenai together.
Temari fights with a giant metal fan which she can use both as a blunt weapon and to create cutting whirlwinds. She's a better fighter at range, according to Kankuro. She believed herself to be the only genin in the Chunin exam capable of using the Summoning Jutsu before Naruto demonstrated his ability to do so.
In Shippuden, Temari has become an emissary between the Leaf and Sand Villages. She wanted to pursue the Akatsuki along with the Leaf Village's rescue team, but the village elders forbade her from doing so, instead putting her on border patrol. She doesn't have much of an effect on the arc.
The instructor for the Sand Siblings's team. Discussed the joint Sand/Sound invasion of Konoha with Kabuto, and killed Hayate for overhearing as a sign of trust.
When Deidara invades the Sand Village he leads an unsuccessful attempt to hold him off. He's later seen objecting to suggestions to pick Gaara's succesor as Kazekage while he is missing.
Sand Village Elder and Sasori's grandmother. An expert on medicine, poison, and puppets as well as a veteran of the Second Great Shinobi War, she holds a great contempt for both Tsunade for countering her poisons and Sakumo Hatake (Kakashi's father) for killing her son and daughter-in-law. After Sasori's parents died by Sakumo's hands, she took care of him and taught him of puppetry. She was the one who Gaara's father asked to seal the One-Tailed Tanuki into Gaara before he was born, after which she ceased involvement with the villages affairs.
When Gaara is kidnapped, she decides to accompany Team 7 as they try to retrieve him. She fights together with Sakura against Sasori, and she capitalizes on an opening left from Sakura taking the blow from a poison sword to finish him off. She is able to heal Sakura using an ability that transfers her own Life Energy, but doesn't die because Sakura wasn't quite dead. When she discovers Gaara dies, she transfers what's left of her energy and some of Naruto's into him, reviving him, but dying in the process (considering it an act of redemption).
Kabuto has just resurrected her with Edo Tensei.
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The Sand Siblings
Gaara of the Desert
Voiced by: Akira Ishida (JP), Liam O Brien (EN)
Gaara of the Desert is a young shinobi from the Hidden Sand Village who makes his first appearance in the Chunin Exam arc as Naruto's Evil Counterpart. Like Naruto, Gaara had a Tailed Beast, the maniacal sand spirit Shukaku, sealed in him when he was a young child by his father, the Fourth Kazekage. The Kazekage's intent was for him to become a weapon for the village, but after several years declared the experiment a failure and repeatedly tried to have the child assassinated. However, Shukaku's power protected Gaara from all harm. Gaara eventually grew to enjoy killing the assassins his father sent after him, reasoning that only through killing could he validate his own existence.
Gaara speaks in a dull monotone at all times except when he's in a killing frenzy. (This is later explained by the fact that Shukaku eats away at his consciousness when he sleeps, so he's become a chronic insomniac.) Even after his Heel Face Turn, he is quiet, creepy, and not very social.
At the end of the Chunin Exam arc, Gaara faces off against Naruto, who beats him with The Power Of Friendship. The battle causes Gaara to reconsider his philosophy. He vows to protect the ones close to him rather than attempt to destroy them, and makes it his goal to win the trust and admiration of his village. Gaara feels indebted to Naruto for the insight.
Later, Gaara and his siblings appear as allies in a Big Damn Heroes moment at the end of the Sasuke Retrieval arc. Gaara is matched up with the strongest opponent, Kimimaro, and battled him to a draw before Kimimaro's terminal illness took his life.
All of Gaara's jutsu revolve around sand. He carries a gourd filled with it at all times and can control its movements instinctively. Shukaku, wanting to protect its vessel, always moves the sand as a shield to protect Gaara (even when he doesn't want it to), which wards off most blows, although it can be defeated with sufficient speed. (Before the main storyline, Gaara had never been injured thanks to the sand shield.) In addition to this defense, Gaara can wear the sand as armor, although this is heavier and requires more chakra and effort to maintain. His main battle tactic is to remain stationary and lash out at his opponent with waves of sand from a distance, relying on the sand shield and armor to defend him. When he has finally captured his opponent with the sand, he can use his signature offensive jutsu, Desert Funeral, to encase his enemy in sand and compress them, killing them instantly.
In Shippuden, Gaara has become the Fifth Kazekage. The first major arc of the new series revolves around him, as he is defeated and captured by the Akatsuki, who attempt to extract Shukaku from his body as part of their mission to collect all nine Tailed Beasts. The reformed Team 7, as well as Team Guy and Chiyo of the Sand Village, mount a rescue mission. The Akatsuki manages to delay the rescuers long enough to extract the spirit, killing its host; however, Chiyo sacrifices her own life to revive him. It's unknown to what degree, if any, his abilities have been affected.
Recently seen going to the meetings of the Kages called by the Raikage with his siblings. He still retains decent control of his sand abilities, but it is still unknown whether he can still use large scale jutsus.
- Abusive Parents: The Kazekage, nuff said.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: He's appointed as the Fifth Kazekage during the time skip, and later becomes Commander General of the Allied Shinobi Forces.
- All Of The Other Reindeer: Though his being made Kazekage has gotten him his won't-you-guide-my-sleigh-tonight moment.
- The Aragorn: He's turning into this, especially as of chapter 516 with that epic Rousing Speech.
- Ax Crazy: He got better.
- Authority Equals Ass Kicking
- Back From The Dead
- Badass
- Black Knight
- Blood Upgrade: "It's my BLOOOD!".
- Break The Cutie: The psychological torture he suffered at the hands of Yashamaru was... well...
- Creepy Monotone: All the time.
- Character Development: Arguably the most extreme example in the series. He went from an Ax Crazy murderer with no apparent empathy to a well-intentioned but still unsure of himself kid Kazekage, to a Wise Beyond His Years Reasonable Authority Figure who truly cares about others. Unlike Shikamaru's, his character development was very much caused by his contact with Naruto.
- Dark Magical Boy
- Deadpan Snarker
- Defeat Means Friendship: After his Naruto beatdown.
- Dishing Out Dirt
- Elemental Baggage: Played with. He can control any kind of sand and even create some from stones in the ground. However, he always brings with him a huge jar full of a specially prepared sand which is much more efficient and faster.
- Enfant Terrible
- Evil Counterpart: Naruto's.
- Evil Redhead: Though it's debatable whether it's red or brown.
- Fail Polish: Gaara's appearance still maintains that gothic look to it, but becomes softer in the filler arcs and Shippuden.
- Four Star Badass
- Goth: Certainly looks the part, and starts off as the Lone Psycho Goth, then becomes more like a Gloomy Goth after his Heel Face Turn.
- Heel Face Turn
- Hero Of Another Story: Gaara.
- Ho Yay / Foe Yay: A bit with Naruto.
- Limited Wardrobe: Notably averted; his outfit changes in each of his major appearances, and he also has the black outfit he wears to Chiyo's funeral and his Kage robes, making six outfits outside of flashbacks.
- Manly Tears: Sheds a single one after concluding that Sasuke won't listen to him and that he must kill him.
- Nightmare Fuel: His attacks.
- Not So Different: With Naruto.
- He later tries this while trying to convince Sasuke to seek redemption like he did, but it doesn't work.
- Not So Stoic: In a scary scene in the Rock Lee vs. Gaara battle, Gaara's stoic face is revealed to be a mask made of sand, with his real face wearing a Slasher Smile.
- Parental Neglect
- Perpetual Frowner: Even when he became good, he rarely smiles.
- Rain Of Blood: Sand Burial liquefies its victims. "A senbon rainstorm, huh? I have a better idea. Let's make it rain blood instead."
- Rousing Speech: His speech to the Allied Shinobi Forces (possibly the most he's ever said at once in the entire series) qualifies Gaara as the patron saint of this trope.
- "Three times now, we've fought world wars for our own nations, our own villages. We've hurt one another. We've hated one another. That hatred bred a lust for power, and that lust for power created me. I was a jinchūriki, the embodiment of hatred and power. And I hated this world, and all the people in it. I wanted to destroy it with my own hands. The exact same thing Akatsuki is trying to do today. But one man, one ninja from Konohagakure stopped me. ...I was his enemy, yet he wept for me! I hurt him, yet he called me his friend! He saved me! My enemy, my fellow jinchūriki... He suffered the same pain as me, yet bore no ill will! There are no enemies here because we've all suffered at Akatsuki's hand! So there is no Suna, no Iwa, no Konoha, no Kiri, and no Kumo! There are only 'shinobi!' And if you still hold a grudge against Suna, when this war is over, come and take my head instead! Our enemies are after the friend who saved my life! If they take him, if we hand him over, our world is finished! I want to protect him! I want to protect our world! But I'm too young to protect it all on my own! All of you, lend me your aid! Everyone who's with me, let's go!"
- Sealed Evil In A Can: As a Jinchuriki. But not anymore since the Shukaku was removed.
- Slasher Smile: In the Rock Lee fight.
- Tykebomb: Was implanted with the Shukaku in utero, by Chiyo at the command of his father, the Fourth Kazekage.
- Unusual Eyebrows: Of the "not there" category.
- Warrior Prince: The youngest child of the Fourth Kazekage.
- Wise Beyond His Years: Not the sort of person you'd expect to display this, but after becoming Kazekage, Gaara becomes one of the wisest characters in the Narutoverse. Specifically, in Chapter 491, when it comes to the risks Naruto takes, Gaara displays a cooler head and quite frankly, much better judgment than Tsunadeconcerning that matter.
- The Woobie: His childhood.
- Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds: Very sympathetic but also very dangerous.
- Yangire: Until he gets better.
- Youngest Child Wins: Sort of.
Kankuro
Voiced by: Yasuyuki Kase (JP), Michael Lindsay (EN)
Kankuro is the second child of the Fourth Kazekage and Gaara's older brother. He tries to control Gaara's homicidal tendencies as best he can, but fears the younger boy's abilities and is thus fairly ineffectual in that respect. He's pretty confident and doesn't have a whole lot of respect for other people; his first appearance in the series sees him bullying Naruto's young friend Konohamaru. Kankuro always wears the robes and face paint of a theater performer, and speaks in that fashion in the original Japanese.
Kankuro fights Shino during the Chunin Exam arc and is defeated, but not before poisoning the latter. He reappears along with his siblings at the end of the Sasuke Retrieval arc, saving Kiba and easily killing Sakon and Ukon.
Kankuro is a puppeteer, which means he fights with mechanical contraptions, controlling them with strings of chakra that he can extend from his fingertips. Puppets are unliving machines, so they can't use chakra, but each of them is outfitted with an array of weapons and poisons. Kankuro can also use the Substitution jutsu to seamlessly switch places with his puppets, causing his enemies to attack the puppets instead. He picks up a new puppet with each new appearance. All of Kankuro's puppets were designed by Sasori before he joined the Akatsuki.
In Shippuden, Kankuro is Worfed by Sasori after Gaara is defeated and abducted by the Akatsuki, giving Sakura a chance to show off her new medical skills, but he managed to get a piece of Sasori's clothing which lets Team 7 track them down. He spends the rest of the arc recovering from his injuries and arguing with the village elders to focus on looking for Gaara instead of choosing his replacement.
Recently, he has revealed that he's acquired a new puppet body: Sasori himself. Later he goes on to defeat the revived Sasori when they face off a second time, gaining the puppets of Sasori's parents in the process.
- Anatomy Arsenal: On his puppets.
- Berserk Button: Being underestimated, and after the Time Skip, anyone insulting his brother.
- Child Hater: Before the Time Skip, he expressed great displeasure of being in the presence of anyone younger than him.
- Exotic Weapon Supremacy
- Facial Markings
- Knight Templar Big Brother: In Shippuuden, after Gaara's Heel Face Turn, he can be quite impulsive when Gaara is threatened or harmed.
- Marionette Master
- Meaningful Name: He's named after a real-life Kabuki actor, hence the facepaint.
- Warrior Prince: The middle child and oldest son of the Fourth Kazekage.
- The Reason You Suck Speech: Delivers one to the revived Sasori after defeating him and Deidara in chapter 518:
- :"Sasori... your strength came because of your soul, not in spite of it. You tried to erase it, to become a puppet yourself, but couldn't change completely. Now you've got your immortal body but you've fallen, sunk to the level of the puppets you used to control. You were supposed to be a top class ninja puppeteer, not a worthless nobody who lets someone else pull the strings."
- Took A Level In Badass: Is named Captain of the Ambush Company in the Fourth Great Ninjawar and leads to an effortless victory against Sasori and Deidara with no causalities.
Temari
Voiced by: Romi Paku (JP), Tara Platt (EN)
Temari is the oldest child and only daughter of the Fourth Kazekage, and the older sister of Gaara and Kankuro. She can be somewhat crude and upfront, but she's also a strong ninja who despises war.
Like Shikamaru, she's a master strategist, and most of their appearances have been together. She is defeated by him during the Chunin Exam arc (even though Shikamaru technically forfeited to her), and saves him from Tayuya during the Sasuke Retrieval arc. In Shippuden, she and Shikamaru work on the upcoming Chuunin Exams together. When Naruto sees them walking together, he believes Shikamaru and Temari are dating. Similar to scene a few years earlier, when Kakashi thought the same thing while watching Asuma and Kurenai together.
Temari fights with a giant metal fan which she can use both as a blunt weapon and to create cutting whirlwinds. She's a better fighter at range, according to Kankuro. She believed herself to be the only genin in the Chunin exam capable of using the Summoning Jutsu before Naruto demonstrated his ability to do so.
In Shippuden, Temari has become an emissary between the Leaf and Sand Villages. She wanted to pursue the Akatsuki along with the Leaf Village's rescue team, but the village elders forbade her from doing so, instead putting her on border patrol. She doesn't have much of an effect on the arc.
- Action Girl
- Blow You Away: Through her Big Fucking Fan.
- Die For Our Ship: Fans of Shikamaru with Ino generally dislike her for obvious reasons.
- Defrosting Ice Queen
- Exotic Weapon Supremacy
- Fan Nickname: The Ninja Lumberjack
- Foe Yay / Ship Tease: with Shikamaru.
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: with Shikamaru.
- Lady Of War
- Magic Skirt: In part 1.
- Not A Date: with Shikamaru
- Shes Got Legs
- Tsundere: "She is even scarier than my mom," in the words of Shikamaru Nara.
- Possession Sue / Jerk Sue: Sadly, she's often exaggerated into this by "feminist" fangirls who use her to bash the other female characters, specially Sakura, Ino, Shiho and Hinata.
- Warrior Princess: The oldest child and only daughter of the Fourth Kazekage.
Other
Baki
Voiced by: Joji Nakata (JP), Sam Riegel (EN)
The instructor for the Sand Siblings's team. Discussed the joint Sand/Sound invasion of Konoha with Kabuto, and killed Hayate for overhearing as a sign of trust.
When Deidara invades the Sand Village he leads an unsuccessful attempt to hold him off. He's later seen objecting to suggestions to pick Gaara's succesor as Kazekage while he is missing.
- Eyepatch Of Power / Mask Power: Or rather, a piece of cloth that hangs from his head covering half of his face.
- Facial Markings
- Parental Substitute: To the Sand siblings.
- Razor Wind: He can form a sword made out of wind. This is how he killed Hayate.
- Team Dad: Much moreso after the Time Skip.
Chiyo
Sand Village Elder and Sasori's grandmother. An expert on medicine, poison, and puppets as well as a veteran of the Second Great Shinobi War, she holds a great contempt for both Tsunade for countering her poisons and Sakumo Hatake (Kakashi's father) for killing her son and daughter-in-law. After Sasori's parents died by Sakumo's hands, she took care of him and taught him of puppetry. She was the one who Gaara's father asked to seal the One-Tailed Tanuki into Gaara before he was born, after which she ceased involvement with the villages affairs.
When Gaara is kidnapped, she decides to accompany Team 7 as they try to retrieve him. She fights together with Sakura against Sasori, and she capitalizes on an opening left from Sakura taking the blow from a poison sword to finish him off. She is able to heal Sakura using an ability that transfers her own Life Energy, but doesn't die because Sakura wasn't quite dead. When she discovers Gaara dies, she transfers what's left of her energy and some of Naruto's into him, reviving him, but dying in the process (considering it an act of redemption).
Kabuto has just resurrected her with Edo Tensei.
- Artificial Limbs: Her right arm is actually a puppet arm which she controls with chakra, and the arm she's shown using opens apart and makes a shield out of chakra.
- The Atoner: Regrets sealing the Shukaku into Gaara, as well as for having a militaristic and isolationist ideology for much of her life.
- Badass Grandma
- Combat Medic
- Cool Old Lady
- Kung Fu Wizard: You'd think focusing on fighting with things that you keep a distance from yourself would leave you rather inexperienced with hand-to-hand combat, but her taijutsu was enough that she actually beat Naruto and several of his clones (though she does lack stamina).
- Marionette Master
- Miniature Senior Citizens
- Never Mess With Granny
- Obfuscating Stupidity
- Retired Badass
- Too Cool To Live
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