Summary

• Gaara, a tragic character in
  Naruto
  suffered due to the Tailed Beast Shukaku sealed within him since birth.
• Despite Gaara's troubled past, he has evolved from a ruthless killer into a respected leader with powerful sand abilities.
• Lady Chiyo's sacrifice brought Gaara back to life, allowing him to fulfill his destiny as the series' hero.

THE Naruto The franchise tells the story of the titular young 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 ShippudenHe makes many allies and fights extremely powerful enemies, protecting the Hidden Leaf Village at all costs.

While Naruto himself has considerable powers that make him difficult to take down in a fight, other characters in the series are not so lucky. Naruto The franchise has seen many painful deaths throughout its considerable run, but the most horrific of all happened to Gaara. His tragic end did not come quickly, but slowly and painfully over the course of many days, and it was all due to a power instilled in him that was beyond his control.

Gaara was originally the polar opposite of Naruto

Gaara begins his journey in Naruto as an antagonist, with his backstory making him the polar opposite of the titular character. Both Gaara and Naruto were born into similar circumstances, but their upbringings led them to have very different personalities. Like Naruto, Gaara is a host to a demon, but instead of being a noble ninja, he becomes a ruthless killer who is ostracized from his village and follows a dark path.

After Gaara and Naruto battle, Naruto emerges victorious and changes Gaara's outlook on life. Gaara would eventually replace his father and become the Fifth Kazekage of his village. Shippuden. Despite being on a more upright path than he was at the beginning of his journey, Gaara still had the tailed beast Shukaku within him — and this unfortunately made him a target of 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

Gaara had the One-Tailed Beast Shukaku sealed within 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 his village. Gaara was born prematurely, and his mother soon died due to complications during childbirth, vowing to protect him in the afterlife. Because Gaara had Shukaku sealed within him 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 within Gaara caused the young ninja to be feared by his fellow villagers, and he felt isolated, often being treated as a terrifying monster by those around him. Shukaku made Gaara's problems even worse by warning him as a child that the tailed beast would take control of his body and kill people if he fell asleep, torturing Gaara and causing him insomnia from a young age.

The powers that Shukaku possesses 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 within him was the main reason Gaara became a target of the Akatsuki, with the rogue ninja seeing the power that Shukaku could unleash upon the world.

Gaara developed powerful sand abilities with Shukaku

Shukaku's most powerful abilities come from its ability to manipulate sand, and it is a power that Gaara can also utilize thanks to having the beast sealed within him. Gaara carries sand infused with his own chakra 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 protecting himself from melee attacks with his Sand Shield.

While many of Gaara's sand manipulation abilities come from the Shukaku within him, Gaara's Sand Shield is unrelated to the Tailed Beast, and he is later able to produce this powerful defensive shield even after the beast is extracted from him. This is because the shield is actually Gaara's mother's, who works to protect him after her death.

Thanks to Gaara's powerful sand-derived abilities and his ability to think quickly, he was able to put up a strong fight when Akatsuki came looking for him. Unfortunately, his defensive measures and Shukaku were not enough to stop him from evading capture.

Akatsuki exploited a weakness in 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 immediately recognized it as a likely intruder. The bird's rider was Deidara, the S-rank ninja who was the youngest member of Akatsuki. The rogue ninja's powerful clay explosives turned out to be the perfect countermeasure to Gaara's sand abilities.

Gaara puts up a good fight, attempting to defend himself and his entire village from Deidara's explosives and using his protective sand wall as a shield against the attacks. Unfortunately for Gaara, Deidara is one of Naruto's most cunning fighters, and while Gaara is acting defensively, Deidara manages to attach explosives to his personal sand reserves. They then detonate at point-blank range, stunning Gaara and allowing Deidara to capture him, taking him back to Akatsuki so they can attempt to extract Shukaku from him.

Gaara endured days of torture before he died.

Back at the Akatsuki lair, Gaara suffered for three days as the group's members attempted to extract Shukaku from his body. The Akatsuki were a dangerously evil terrorist group in the series, and their evil was fully exposed during Gaara's torture. The group intended to capture all the tailed beasts and use them to start and end wars, and they knew that gaining control over Shukaku would give them a powerful tool in their evil arsenal.

During the three days Gaara suffered at the hands of Akatsuki, he began to have a sad and lonely vision of himself, with the image growing stronger as he approached death. After Shukaku was fully extracted from his body, Gaara succumbed to the torture and sadly died.

The torture he endured before his death was incredibly sad to watch, especially considering Gaara's incredible character arc, starting out as a terrifying force of evil but coming to his senses after his encounter with Naruto. Gaara was a character who proved that it's never too late for a new beginning and that everyone is capable of incredible growth when placed 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

Although Gaara's death was a tragic moment in Naruto franchise, this was not the end of the character. When Naruto and his team arrived and recovered his body from the Akatsuki lair after his death, they were unable to revive him using traditional methods. Lady Chiyo, who sealed Shukaku into Gaara before he was born, decided to make the ultimate sacrifice to bring the young ninja back to life.

By using the Life Reincarnation technique, Lady Chiyo was able to use up all of her chakra, exchanging her soul for 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 awoke 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 aid Naruto and his allies in their quest for world peace, later becoming the commander of the Fourth Division of the Allied Shinobi Forces, fighting to stop Akatsuki during the Fourth Shinobi World War. Gaara may have had a troubled past, with his tailed beast ostracizing him and marking him for death, but in the end, Lady Chiyo's sacrifice saved his life and allowed him to live up to his full potential as the hero he was destined to be.