The Naruto franchise tells the story of the young titular ninja as he rises through the ranks and achieves his dream of becoming the Hokage, earning the respect of his village along the way. Throughout both Naruto and Shippuden, he makes many allies and battles extremely powerful enemies, protecting the Hidden Leaf Village at all costs.
While Naruto himself has considerable powers that make him hard to take down in a fight, other characters in the series aren't so lucky. The Naruto franchise has had many heartbreaking deaths over its considerable run, but the most gruesome of them all happened to Gaara. His tragic end didn't come quickly, but slowly and painfully over many days, and it was all due to a power instilled in him that was beyond his control.
Gaara Was Originally Naruto's Polar Opposite
Gaara begins his journey in Naruto as an antagonist, with his backstory making him the opposite of the titular character. Both Gaara and Naruto were born under similar circumstances, but their upbringing led them to have very different personalities. Like Naruto, Gaara is the host of a demon, but rather than being a noble ninja, he becomes a ruthless killer who is ostracized from his village and goes down a dark path.
After Gaara and Naruto battle it out, Naruto emerges victorious and changes Gaara's outlook on life. Gaara would eventually replace his father and become the Fifth Kazekage of his village in Shippuden. Despite being on a more upstanding path than at the beginning of his journey, Gaara still had the Tailed Beast Shukaku inside him — and that unfortunately made him a target for the Akatsuki, a criminal organization that wanted to use the power of the nine Tailed Beasts to bring peace to the world.
Gaara's Tailed Beast Made Him a Target for Death
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Gaara had the One-Tail Beast Shukaku sealed inside him by Lady Chiyo before he was even born, with his father, the Fourth Kazekage, wanting to use the beast as a weapon to protect their village. Gaara was born prematurely, and his mother soon died from complications with the birth, vowing to protect him in the afterlife. Because Gaara had Shukaku sealed within him from before he was born, he had access to powerful abilities thanks to the Tailed Beast, and as a child, he struggled to control them.
Shukaku's power inside Gaara led the young ninja to be feared by his fellow villagers, and he felt isolated, often being treated like a terrifying monster by those around him. Shukaku made Gaara's troubles even worse, warning him as a child that the Tailed Beast would take control of his body and kill people if he ever fell asleep, torturing Gaara and giving him insomnia from a very young age.
The powers that Shukaku has make Gaara an exceptionally strong fighter when he is able to control the beast. Like other humans with a tailed beast sealed within them, Gaara can transform into Shukaku, but at great risk; the beast's homicidal personality quickly begins to take over. The beast inside him was the primary reason Gaara became a target of the Akatsuki, with the rogue ninjas seeing the power that Shukaku could unleash upon the world.
Gaara Developed Powerful Sand Abilities from Shukaku
Shukaku's most powerful skills come from his ability to manipulate sand, and it is a power that Gaara can tap into as well thanks to having the beast sealed inside him. Gaara carries sand infused with his own chakra with him wherever he goes, allowing him to use the sand both offensively and defensively in battle. Most of the time, Gaara uses his ninja techniques defensively, using his sand to attack from afar and capture his opponents while also shielding himself from melee range attacks with his Shield of Sand.
While much of Gaara's sand manipulation abilities do come from Shukaku inside him, Gaara's Shield of Sand is not related to the Tailed Beast, and he's later able to produce this powerful defensive shield even after the beast is extracted from him. This is because the shield is actually from Gaara's mother, who works to protect him after her death.
Thanks to Gaara's powerful sand-derived abilities and his ability to think quickly on his feet, he was able to put up a strong fight when the Akatsuki came looking for him. Unfortunately, his defensive measures and Shukaku were not enough to keep him from avoiding capture.
The Akatsuki Exploited a Weakness with Gaara's Sand Powers
In the events leading up to Gaara's death, he noticed a strange bird flying in the sky above his village and instantly recognized that it was a likely intruder. The bird's rider was Deidara, the S-rank ninja who was the youngest member of the Akatsuki. The rogue ninja's powerful clay explosives ended up being the perfect countermeasure to Gaara's sand abilities.
Gaara puts up a good fight, trying to defend both himself and his entire village from Deidara's explosives and utilizing his protective sand wall as a shield from the attacks. Unfortunately for Gaara, Deidara is one of Naruto's most cunning fighters, and while Gaara was acting defensively, Deidara managed to sneak explosives into his personal reserves of sand. They then detonated at point-blank range, stunning Gaara and allowing Deidara to capture him, taking him back to the Akatsuki so that they could attempt to extract Shukaku from him.
Gaara Endured Days of Torture Before Dying
Back at the Akatsuki lair, Gaara suffered for three days as the members of the group tried to extract Shukaku from his body. The Akatsuki were a dangerously evil terrorist group in the series, and their wickedness was on full display during their torture of Gaara. The group aimed to capture all the tailed beasts and use them to both start and finish wars, and they knew that having control over Shukaku would give them a powerful tool in their evil arsenal.
During the three days that Gaara suffered at the hands of the Akatsuki, he began to see a sad and lonely vision of himself, with the image getting stronger as he neared death. After Shukaku was fully extracted from his body, Gaara succumbed to the torture and sadly died.
The torture he endured before death was incredibly sad to watch, especially considering Gaara's incredible character arc, beginning as a terrifying force of evil but coming into the light after his encounter with Naruto. Gaara was a character who proved that it's never too late for a fresh start and that everyone is capable of incredible growth when put in a kind and loving environment. It was tragically depressing for him to fall victim to the evil Akatsuki because of the Tailed Beast inside him — the one thing he had no control over.
Chiyo Made the Ultimate Sacrifice For Gaara
While Gaara's death was a tragic moment in the Naruto franchise, it was not the end for the character. When Naruto and his team arrived and retrieved his body from the Akatsuki's lair after his death, they were unable to revive him using traditional methods. Lady Chiyo, who was the one to seal Shukaku in Gaara before he was born, decided to make the ultimate sacrifice to bring the young ninja back to life.
By using the One's Own Life Reincarnation technique, Lady Chiyo was able to use all of her chakra, exchanging her soul for that of his. She gave her life so that he could live as a way of apologizing for sealing Shukaku into him, which was the main cause of all the suffering he endured throughout his life.
After Lady Chiyo's sacrifice, Gaara awakened to find himself surrounded by Naruto as well as his family and friends who were mourning him. Having been brought back to life, Gaara would go on to help Naruto and his allies in their mission for world peace, later becoming a commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces' Fourth Division, fighting to stop the Akatsuki during the Fourth Shinobi World War. Gaara may have had a troubled past, with his Tailed Beast ostracizing him and making him marked for death, but in the end, Lady Chiyo's sacrifice saved his life and allowed him to go on to live up to his full potential as the hero he was destined to be.
