text: gaara gaara ( ) is a fictional character in the naruto manga and anime series created by masashi kishimoto . kishimoto designed gaara as a foil to the series ' eponymous character , naruto uzumaki , as the two were born through similar circumstances , but develop vastly different personalities as upbringing . initially introduced as an antagonist , gaara is a shinobi affiliated with sunagakure , and is the son of sunagakure 's leader , the fourth kazekage . he was born a demon 's host as part of his father 's intention to have a weapon to restore their village . however , a combination of being ostracized by the sunagakure villagers , his early inability to control the tailed beast , and the notion that his deceased mother called him her curse on the village caused gaara to become a ruthless killer who believes his own purpose is to kill his enemies . it is only after meeting naruto uzumaki that gaara a change of perspective as he eventually becomes sunagakure 's fifth kazekage and gains acceptance by his people . gaara has appeared in several pieces of naruto media , including two of the featured films in the series , the third original video animation , and several video games . numerous anime and manga publications have commented on gaara 's character . ign labeled the disparity between naruto and gaara as " emotional " and " a tad creepy " . anime news network called naruto 's fight against gaara the high point of the entire series . among the naruto reader base , gaara has been popular , placing high in several popularity polls , and always making it to the top ten characters . numerous pieces of merchandise have been released in gaara 's likeness , including plush dolls , key chains and action figures . creation and conception naruto author masashi kishimoto created gaara as a foil to the series ' protagonist , naruto uzumaki . he and naruto have a similar background : he was rejected by his peers and fellow villagers for being the host of a tailed beast , shukaku , a situation that kishimoto describes as " very much like naruto 's " . gaara 's development from this state into a highly withdrawn , sadistic character was intended to induce sympathy for him from readers , as it was contrasted against naruto 's development into a cheerful troublemaker . additionally , his design was designed to look like the since kishimoto thought that it would make him a good rival for naruto 's nine - tailed demon fox since several parts from the shukaku were considered by kishimoto to be opposite ones from the demon fox . gaara 's backstory became one of kishimoto 's favorite stories from part i ; kishimoto had to revise his illustrations in such chapters in as he wanted readers to understand more gaara 's mental state . gaara 's initial attire , along with the costumes of his siblings , was difficult for kishimoto to draw on a weekly basis . because of this , kishimoto gave the three of them simpler costumes towards the end of part i ; gaara received an outfit with an upright collar . in addition to being easier to draw , it was used to demonstrate the change in relationship between gaara and naruto following their previous fight . kishimoto cites the matrix , one of his favorite movies , as an inspiration for gaara 's new costume , and he considers it to be his favorite costume of the three siblings . appearances in naruto before he was born , gaara 's father , the fourth kazekage rasa , had chiyo make gaara into the jinchuriki for the tailed beast shukaku the one tail ( , no shukaku , english tv : " shukaku the sand spirit " ) while he was still in his mother 's womb before she died giving birth to him . though believed at the time to be shukaku 's power in action , gaara can manipulate sand , which subconsciously protects him . rasa intended to use gaara as the village 's personal weapon , but shukaku 's bloodlust proved too much for gaara as he suffered night terrors brought about by the tailed beast 's influence . with gaara 's sand adding to his inability to control shukaku , the boy became feared to the point his father decided to have him assassinated . after his maternal uncle ( who was the only person that gaara thought cared for him ) tried to finish that very job in an attempted murder - suicide , gaara adopted the belief that he could only rely upon himself and shukaku , and that he had to kill others in order to confirm the value of his own existence . he thus became narcissistic , even permanently scarring his left temple with the kanji for " love " ( 愛 , ai ) for his new drive . gaara first appears in the series when he is sent to konohagakure , an allied ninja village , to take part in the chunin exams alongside his older siblings kankuro and temari . in truth , he is sent in order to infiltrate konohagakure in preparation for an invasion by sunagakure and its ally , otogakure . there , he and his teammates and older siblings , kankuro and temari , easily pass both the first and second phases . in the third phase , gaara is set to fight against rock lee . lee is able to pass gaara 's defenses , provoking an enraged gaara into breaking lee 's arm and leg , claiming victory . during the one - month training period , he kills several other who make attempts on his life . he also tries to kill a hospitalized lee , but is stopped by naruto uzumaki and shikamaru nara ; he reveals his past to the two boys , causing naruto to sympathize with their similar backgrounds . he later fights sasuke uchiha in the finals of the chunin exams . sasuke manages to give gaara the first injury he has ever received , causing gaara to suffer a mental breakdown and nearly manifest his powers . this begins the invasion , with his older siblings carrying him off as he could not participate in his current state of mind . but when sasuke pursues him , gaara 's jinchuriki powers take effect as he manages to defeat sasuke . naruto then arrives , however , and defeats him . seeing that naruto 's outlook on reaching out to people with love is making him more powerful than himself , gaara is redeemed . later , sunagakure sends gaara to help in preventing sasuke from defecting to otogakure , which became enemy of sunagakure once learning that orochimaru murdered rasa prior to the attack . while he is able to help rock lee fight kimimaro , gaara is unable to prevent sasuke from escaping . he makes amends with the many characters he had alienated , apologizing to those he hurt and improving his relationship with his family . at the same time , gaara 's fundamental characteristic becomes the desire to protect as many people as he can , as in doing so he believes , like naruto , he will be able to find true strength . this culminates in his replacing his father as the fifth kazekage during part ii of the series . in part ii of the series , three years after the failed attempt to retrieve sasuke , deidara , a member of the criminal organization akatsuki , is sent to sunagakure to capture gaara . gaara fights deidara to protect the village , but deidara manages to capture gaara by destroying a large portion of the village , then tricking gaara and catching him in an explosion . the members of the akatsuki then kidnap him and extract shukaku from his body . gaara dies in the process , his body being recovered by naruto and kakashi hatake . naruto weeps over gaara 's life , provoking chiyo into sacrificing her own life to revive gaara after coming to acknowledge naruto and sakura haruno 's resolve . sometime later , he goes to the five kage summit , where the akatsuki 's leader tobi , claiming to be madara uchiha , breaks into the meeting and announces the fourth great ninja war to capture the last two tailed - beasts . sasuke , now a member of the akatsuki , arrives there as well , intending to kill the de facto hokage , danzo . sasuke engages the in conflict , but gaara intervenes and tries to reason with sasuke much like naruto did with him . sasuke refuses , and under kankuro and temari 's persuasion , gaara reluctantly attacks him before tobi spirits sasuke away . soon after , gaara attempts to convince naruto that sasuke is beyond saving but decides to let him do what he must as sasuke 's friend while rejuvenating naruto 's spirits . gaara later joins the new shinobi alliance as its field commander to protect naruto and killer bee , using naruto 's philosophy of love and the akatsuki 's philosophy of hatred to unite the army when it nearly imploded from internal conflict . on the second day of the war , gaara encounters his reanimated father , who is shocked by his development . rasa reveals the truth to that his uncle 's final action were his doing and that the truth that gaara 's mother always loved him , moving gaara to tears after learning his mother 's will is the force behind his sand . rasa recognizes his son has surpassed him and entrusts sunagakure to him after being defeated . gaara later defeats and seals the revived second mizukage and joins the rest of the five kage to fight the real madara uchiha who was reanimated by kabuto , nearly getting killed as a result . later healed by tsunade with orochimaru 's help , gaara departs with the other kage to site of their side 's battle with madara and obito . there , after using his former jinchuriki status to free him , gaara is reunited with shukaku as they assist naruto and the other tailed beasts against madara . before watching him be absorbed by the gedo statue again , gaara manages to make his peace with shukaku while thanking the tailed beast for ensuring that he would meet naruto . gaara then witnesses the nine - tails get extracted from naruto , and desperately brings him to sakura . they take him to minato namikaze and gaara holds off madara before might guy takes over prior naruto being successfully revived . once the infinite tsukiyomi is activated , gaara is caught in the illusion of being with his entire family and naruto as his friend before being freed by naruto and sasuke . by the series epilogue , having the hidden leaf village 's nara clan as in - laws through temari , gaara remains active as the kazekage . in boruto : naruto the movie , gaara and the other kage attend the chunin exam in konoha before they engage in combat against momoshiki and kinshiki in a rescue mission after naruto was kidnapped . appearances in other media gaara has made several appearances outside of the naruto anime and manga . he is present in the second and sixth naruto feature films , naruto the movie 2 : legend of the stone of and naruto shippuden the movie : the will of fire . in the former , he protects the land of wind from an assault by haido , the antagonist of the film , and later battles the lightning user ranke , one of haido 's subordinates , and defeats her , while in the latter , he temporarily becomes enemies of konohagakure as they are the prime suspect of a pitfall attack on him while he is about to attend a meeting with tsunade , in reality being done by a missing nin , hiruko , and briefly battles naruto , although after the confusion is cleared , he allies himself with them again . gaara is also present in the third original video animation released in the series , in which he participates in a tournament of various characters from across the series . naruto video games commonly feature gaara , including the clash of ninja and ultimate ninja series . in some games , he uses his shukaku form for combat , as well as other moves not seen in the anime or manga . naruto shippūden : gekitou ninja taisen ex marks the first appearance of gaara in his part ii appearance in a video game . an upcoming light novel titled gaara hiden will focus on the character . reception gaara has ranked highly in the popularity polls for the series , continuously placing in the top ten . the last such poll was in 2011 , in which gaara was in 4th place . several pieces of gaara merchandise has been released ; including key chains , plush dolls and action figures of his part i and part ii appearance . animecentral listed him as eighth best villain in anime with comments focused on how flashbacks made him a tragic character and at the same time similar to naruto uzumaki . additionally , his fight against rock lee was listed as the second best one in anime for exchanges in moves and its conclusion . anime and manga publications have mostly praised gaara 's character . ign noted that gaara was an " anti - naruto " , possessing a " dark , solemn character " as opposed to naruto 's continuous cheer and excitement . in another review , ign also called gaara 's background " emotional " and " a tad creepy " due to the disparity between the development of naruto 's and gaara 's personalities . anime news network celebrated the " depth and emotion " that naruto 's and gaara 's similarities added to the plot , and commented that " nowhere in the entire series run does naruto shine brighter than in the peak period of his battle against gaara " . they also complimented kishimoto 's visual presentation of gaara in the manga , referring to " chilling [ glimpses ] of gaara 's crazed , exposed face " . mania entertainment noted that gaara and sasuke 's first fight shows how the former has a " fragile " psyche despite his violent attitude . his backstory was also praised by mania entertainment since it includes " a ton of legitimate emotion " allowing viewers from the series to understand more gaara 's personality . liam o 'brien , gaara 's voice actor in the english dubbed version of the anime , has been praised . ign noted that he did an " excellent job " of making gaara sound terrifying to the viewer , and anime news network noted him as one of the best voice actors in the series . gaara 's promotion to leader from sunagakure in part ii of the series was deemed as the most surprising development in the series by briana lawrence from mania entertainment . uk anime network 's kevin leathers stated that while in the first part of the series , gaara was a fearsome villain , in the following one he became " much more three - dimensional . " similarly , todd douglass jr. from dvd talk praised gaara 's development in later episodes from naruto : shippuden owing to his relationship 's expansion with naruto . his fight against deidara has also received positive response , with critics the revisit of gaara 's popular moves and the strategy both fighters employed .