History Characters / NarutoGaara

* CelibateHero: Justified. His upbringing didn’t really give him a chance to properly develop a romantic relationship with anyone. His later status as Kazekage, in conjunction with Temari’s handwork in getting rid of [[StalkerWithACrush “unwanted admirers”]] prevented romance as well. However, even with that, he notes that he never had any intentions for relationships - not that he was necessarily against it, [[ArrangedMarriage unless he was forced into]] like with Hakuto, - and that the people who had [[CelebCrush feelings for him]] didn't [[LovingAShadow truly love him]]. [[spoiler:He does become an uncle and adopts a son, however.]]

* DrivenToVillainy: Upon his birth a demon was sealed inside him, with his mother becoming a sacrifice, so that he could become his ninja village's ultimate weapon. But said demon also makes everyone in the village terrified of him, and he grows up reviled as a monster. Finally, his own father (who arranged the whole thing in the first place), finding him growing unstable, sends assassins to kill him. The first assassin is his beloved uncle, the only one who seems to care for him, who reveals that he's actually secretly hated him all these years for killing his sister (Gaara's mom, the one who was sacrificed to make him what he was), and that his mother had died cursing the village and hoped that Gaara killed them all - his name, given by her, means "The Demon who loves only himself". Naturally, he finally snaps, and spends the next few years killing anyone who gave him half a reason to as a way of proving that he exists. Oh, and the demon in question prevents him from sleeping, less it starts eating away at his mind.

* NoSocialSkills: Thanks to having a similar childhood, is not much better than Naruto--in fact, he might be even worse. ''[[LightNovel/NarutoHiden Gaara Hiden]]'' reveals he was completely unaware of [[EveryoneCanSeeIt Shikamaru and Temari's sexual tension]] (something that even [[ObliviousToLove Naruto]] noticed), and thus was the only one surprised when they got together. Further interactions with his [[spoiler:fiancée]] reveal that as great a leader as he is, Gaara has little-to-no idea on how to interact with other people on a more familiar level (besides his family).

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: A twelve-year old who kills someone in a gruesome manner, [[DisproportionateRetribution because he looked at him the wrong way]], and then threatening to [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt kill his big brother]], is not what a normal child would do. [[BrokenBird Then again...]]

[[Characters/NarutoTeamSevenMembers Team 7]] ([[Characters/NarutoNarutoUzumaki Naruto Uzumaki]], [[Characters/NarutoSasukeUchiha Sasuke Uchiha]], [[Characters/NarutoSakuraHaruno Sakura Haruno]], [[Characters/NarutoKakashiHatake Kakashi Hatake]]) | [[Characters/NarutoTeamEightMembers Team 8]] ([[Characters/NarutoHinataHyuga Hinata Hyuga]]) | [[Characters/NarutoTeamTenMembers Team 10]] | [[Characters/NarutoTeamGuyMembers Team Guy]] | [[Characters/NarutoTheLegendarySannin The Legendary Sannin]] | [[Characters/NarutoHokages Hokages]] | [[Characters/NarutoTheUchihaClan The Uchiha Clan]] | [[Characters/NarutoOtherLeafVillageMembers Other Leaf Village Members]] | [[Characters/NarutoHiddenSandVillage Hidden Sand Village]] ('''Gaara''') | [[Characters/NarutoHiddenMistVillage Hidden Mist Village]] | [[Characters/NarutoHiddenCloudVillage Hidden Cloud Village]] | [[Characters/NarutoHiddenStoneVillage Hidden Stone Village]] | [[Characters/NarutoHiddenSoundVillage Hidden Sound Village]] ([[Characters/NarutoOrochimaru Orochimaru]]) | [[Characters/NarutoAkatsuki Akatsuki]] ([[Characters/NarutoItachiUchiha Itachi Uchiha]], [[Characters/NarutoObitoUchiha Tobi]], [[Characters/NarutoNagato Pain/Nagato]]) | [[Characters/NarutoMadaraUchiha Madara Uchiha]] | [[Characters/NarutoOtherCharacters Other Characters]] | [[Characters/NarutoTaka Hebi/Taka]] | [[Characters/NarutoTailedBeasts Tailed Beasts and Their Hosts]] | [[Characters/NarutoOtsutsukiClan Otsutsuki Clan]] | [[Characters/NarutoAnimeOnly Anime-Only Characters]] | [[Characters/NarutoMoviesOnly Movie-Only Characters]] | [[Characters/NarutoNovelsOnly Novel-Only Characters]] | [[Characters/NarutoGameOnly Game-Only Characters]] | [[Characters/{{Boruto}} The New Era]]]]-]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see his pre-timeskip appearance]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gaara_part_i.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:182:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in ''The Last'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/naruto_gaara_the_last.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:290:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in the Epilogue/''Boruto'' era]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/naruto_gaara_new_era.png[[/labelnote]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see his pre-Timeskip appearance]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gaara_pt1.png[[/labelnote]]]]

* TraumaCongaLine: He's probably the character, along with Sasuke, who has one of the most tragic background stories in manga history. See AbusiveParents.

[[folder:A-H]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:I-Q]]

** Also serves as one to Sasuke. Both were abnormally powerful Ninja for their age, were motivated by hatred, and as a result of their pasts, were loners who initially cared for nobody but themselves before Naruto caused them to change their ways. The difference being that while Sasuke was beloved by the majority of his village, Gaara was feared and despised for his whole childhood. Additionally, while Sasuke's was towards a specific person who he wanted to kill, Gaara hated the whole world and desired to kill indiscriminately. Finally, while Gaara ultimately changes for the better thanks to Naruto's influence, Sasuke's envy of how much stronger Naruto's became ultimately kickstarts his descent into villainy.

** Also serves as one to Sasuke. Both were abnormally powerful Ninja for their age, were motivated by hatred, and as a result of their pasts, were loners who initially cared for nobody but themselves before Naruto caused them to change their ways. The difference being that while Sasuke was beloved by the majority of his village, Gaara was feared and despised for his whole childhood. Additionally, while Sasuke's hatred led to him wanting to kill a specific person, Gaara hated the whole world and desired to kill indiscriminately. Finally, while Gaara ultimately changes for the better thanks to Naruto's influence, Sasuke's envy of how much stronger Naruto became ultimately kickstarts his descent into villainy.

* {{Foil}}: One of the first ones to Naruto. Both have spiky hair, were despondent and lonely in their childhoods and are the jinchuriki of a tailed beast, Shukaku for Gaara and Kurama for Naruto. They also became the kages of the village the reside in. The major difference however, is that Naruto did have a select few people who looked after him in his childhood and had loving parents despite them being deceased. Gaara on the other hand was hunted by Sunagakure assassins hired by his father and had only one paternal figure in his uncle, Yashamaru, who died trying to kill Gaara.

* {{Foil}}: One of the first ones to Naruto. Both have spiky hair, were despondent and lonely in their childhoods and are the jinchuriki of a tailed beast, Shukaku for Gaara and Kurama for Naruto. They also became the kages of the village the reside in. The major difference however, is that Naruto did have a select few people who looked after him in his childhood and had loving parents despite them being deceased. Gaara on the other hand was hunted by Sunagakure assassins hired by his father and had only one paternal figure in his uncle, Yashamaru.

* HeroicSacrifice: Played straight and then averted. Gaara using up all of his chakra to protect his village from Deidara's C3 completely exhausted and rendered him unconscious, leading his his capture, followed by the Akatsuki extracting Shukaku from his body and his death. He does get revived by Chiyo, at the cost of her own life.

* NotSoDifferent: With Sasuke and Naruto.
** He and Naruto are both a host and were shunned by their villages. Naruto however found people who accepted him and kept him from becoming like Gaara. After being defeated, Gaara chooses to follow Naruto's path.
** In Part I, he and Sasuke both had "the same eyes" motivated to prove their existence and punish those who caused them pain. He later tries this again while trying to convince Sasuke to seek redemption like he did, but it doesn't work.

[[folder:A - H]]
* TheAce: Once he's defeated by Naruto and makes a genuine turn to Good, he steps up to this. He becomes the Kazekage, earns the support of his village, and is one of the strongest ninja in the world. He was even able to give [[WorldsStrongestMan Madara Uchiha]] pause for a moment. By the end of the series, Gaara is possibly the strongest shinobi in the world currently alive apart from Naruto and Sasuke.

[[folder:I - Q]]

[[folder:R - Y]]

* DrivenToVillainy: Upon his birth a demon was sealed inside him, with his mother becoming a sacrifice, so that he could become his ninja village's ultimate weapon. But said demon also makes everyone in the village terrified of him, and he grows up reviled as a monster. Finally, his own father (who arranged the whole thing in the first place), finding him growing unstable, sends assassins to kill him. The first assassin is his beloved uncle, the only one who seems to care for him, who reveals that he's actually secretly hated him all these years for killing his sister (Gaara's mom, the one who was sacrificed to make him what he was), and that his mother had died cursing the village and hoped that Gaara killed them all - his name, given by her, means "The Demon who loves only himself". Naturally, he finally snaps, and spends the next few years killing everyone he runs across as a way of proving that he exists. Oh, and the demon in question prevents him from sleeping, less it starts eating away at his mind.

* PowerIncontinence: As a child Gaara could not control his powers and killed many people from his village and he became a pariah who his father the Kazekage was forced to mark as a threat to the villages stability.

* TheQuietOne: Gaara only speaks a couple of words in Part I. He gets more vocal in Part II.

* WhipItGood: While he doesn't usually use weapons, he did show skill in this when he demonstrated how to use a jouhyou to Matsuri in part 1 episode 216.

* MagnetismManipulation: Gaara can use the Magnet Release kekkei genkai to manipulate a high-density "Sparkling Metalic Sand". Whether it's how he manipulates his normal sand is a contentious subject.

* SandBlaster: Gaara can manipulate sand due to being Shukaku's jinchuriki and possessing the Magnet Release.

* AchillesHeel: Sasuke wins the ElementalRockPaperScissors against Gaara, due to chidori's Lightning Nature decimating constructs of Earth Nature, as such Gaara's first true injury is due to Sasuke being able to pierce the other nina's defense. Downplayed in Part II, while it still can pierce Gaara's sand, Gaara can adapt to this weakness ''much'' better.

* TheAce: Once he's defeated by Naruto and makes a genuine turn to Good, he steps up to this. He becomes the Kazekage, earns the support of his village, and is one of the strongest ninja in the world. He was even able to give [[WorldsStrongestMan Madara Uchiha]] pause for a moment.

* {{Adorkable}}: In ''LightNovel/GaaraHidenASandstormMirage'', he excitedly explains to Hakuto, [[spoiler:his fiance]], about the cacti he's fond of cultivating. He thinks he's babbling but she finds it very cute.

* LongRangeFighter: Type 1 as the sand does such a great job protecting and attacking for him he's never developed any real need for close range attacks outside of when Shukaku took over.

* ArrangedMarriage: In ''Gaara Hiden'', the Sand's elders rope him into one, leaving him no way to back out of it.

* BigBadWannabe: He tries to make Naruto like him as they both had a tailed beast sealed inside and Gaara thought he only lived to kill people since he couldn't get any response from them. But Naruto eventually taught him that not all people are bad and that they can improve in his life. After Part 1, Gaara becomes one of Naruto’s friends and allies.

* BigBadWannabe: He tries to make Naruto like him as they both had a tailed beast sealed inside, But Naruto eventually taught him that not all people are bad and that they can improve in his life. After Part 1, Gaara becomes one of Naruto’s friends and allies.

* BigBadEnsemble: He briefly shared this role with Orochimaru for Part 1.
* BigBadWannabe: He becomes one ultimately one near the end of Part 1, Naruto eventually taught him that not all people are bad and that they can improve in his life. After Part 1, Gaara becomes one of Naruto’s friends and allies.

* ExBigBad: while he may not have been the BigBad of part 1, he did share the role with Orochimaru for a bit. But after his HeelFaceTurn he becomes one of Naruto’s allies.

* RealMenWearPink: Some non-Japanese speaking fanboys refused to believe that AxCrazy demon-possessed Gaara has the word 'love' written on his head and get mad when fangirls draw him with a heart. "No, it must be something badass like 'death', or 'suffering'." Nope. [[http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs12/f/2006/330/a/1/Chibi_Gaara_Colored_by_Monylove17.png It's love]]. Carved into his forehead by his sand-shaping powers the moment he finally broke after his Uncle Yashamaru tried to kill him and then told him that he never was and never would be loved. This symbolizes that he loves only himself and fights only for himself, prior to his HeelFaceTurn. It has also been revealed that, like Naruto, he enjoys gardening, specifically cultivating cacti.