Tuesday, May 10, 2005

adding to the Shrine ...
Gaara's fighting style
Gaara has one of the most peculiar and unique, yet powerful, fighting styles amongst the many characters of Naruto. It all revolves around his mysterious gourd, which posses magical powers. Using a great amount of NinJutsus, few GenJutsus, and almost no TaiJutsus at all, Gaara is a shinobi that could probably beat all Gennin's and even most Chuunin's of Konoha. Fortunately for Gaara, his gourd does almost all the work for him, aiding him drastically both in offense and defense. Being originated in the hidden sand village, most of Gaara's techniques are a combination of Chakra and sand, aiming to suffocating the opponent using large force. As for his defense, the sand in Gaara's gourd moves at lightspeed and blocks almost all incoming attacks, creating an extremely strong barrier. Obviously , his power lies inside that mysterious sand gourd... in the lines to follow, we explain the attributes of this "weapon" of Gaara's.

Sand Gourd
This is the ultimate source of Gaara's strength and techniques. It is said that, when Gaara was born, he was cursed with Shukaku, the sand demon. In order to stop that curse from taking complete control of his body, a special sealing Jutsu was made on Gaara, sealing his mother inside the gourd, along with Shukaku, and thus giving Gaara both their powers. This is also the reasons why at some points Gaara calls the gourd "mother". The gourd is also one of the causes to Gaara's huge hate and love to death, beacause his mother's death caused so much pain to his childhood, it left him with a lifelong trauma. However, now that he has learnt to manipulate the powers of the gourd, he is an extremely strong shinobi.The gourd's sand is the source of all of Gaara's techniques, but there is one catch; Gaara must use his chakra to hold the sand, as well as for manipulation. Among his many techniques, Gaara can create bunshins (clones) from sand, shurikens, and even command it so it wraps up around the enemy, and then suffocates him/her to death. However, the most powerful and fascinating aspect of the gourd and its sand, is the trigger of Gaara's defenses. There are basically two types of defensive techniques Gaara uses; the Sand Armor, and the Sand Shield. We describe each of them in the lines to follow.

Shield of Sand (Suna no Tate)
Using the sand in the gourd, Gaara's first and mostly used defense system consists of a thick mass of sand moving swiftly to the point that is being attacked. What is extremely mysterious about this defense is that Gaara doesn't control it; it functions automatically, protecting Gaara with extreme precision. This first layer of armory is really hard to penetrate, mainly because the sand moves at the blink of an eye, covering Gaara from 360 degrees. As a result, any weapons thrown at Gaara, along with long range NinJutsus , and most TaiJutsu , are all proven useless against his almost flawless defense. Frankly, the only real opening in the gourd's sand shield is by overcoming the sand's speed, leaving it unable to block the attack in time. A really fast TaiJutsu attack, or a NinJutsu with large amounts of Chakra (such as Chidori) would definitely be the Sand Shield's worst enemy. A high level GenJutsu would also most definitely work, since the sand can't block many spiritual attacks.

Armor of Sand (Suna no Yoroi)
This is Gaara's most seldomly used and last line of defenses; the sand armor. It is used rarely mainly because the shield of sand is penetrated only in few instances. The armor of sand is there only as a last second defense, but it has its reasons. First, it is not nearly as strong as the shield of sand is, making it considerably easier to be penetrated. Because it only includes a thin layer of sand kept closely packed together by chakra, the armor of sand also consumes big amounts of chakra, meaning that Gaara can't hold it off for a very long time. If he does, he may waste a large amount of his chakra. However, as told before, this technique is seldomly used, and even if it is used, it will most likely completely demolish the attack, causing absolutely no damage to Gaara. As a result, until his battle with Rock Lee, Gaara had never been injured before.

This wraps up the defense, but what about Gaara's offensive techniques? For his part, this Sand Shinobi uses mostly Sand NinJutsu, and he has many tricks up his sleeve. Even though his NinJutsu skills are extremely strong, Gaara merely even uses TaiJutsu. In fact, in most battles Gaara doesn't even bother to move; the sand does all the movement for him. Finally, in terms of GenJutsu, Gaara hasn't showed any specific skill in that area, since he has never used a GenJutsu in a battle. Now, to his NinJutsus; Gaara mostly uses two combining sand techniques, Sabaku Sousou, and Sabaku Kyuu. We explain both of them in detail in the lines to follow.

Sabaku Kyuu (Desert Coffin)
One of Gaara's most commonly used skills, Sabaku Kyuu does just what it stands for; it creates a mass of sand which engulfs the opponent or a part of him, such as a leg or arm. The main purpose of this technique is to immobilize the enemy, possibly creating an opening for another attack. However, since Gaara prefers playing with his enemies rather than taking it seriously, he will most likely use his chakra to contract the sand quickly together, leaving his enemy to suffocate. This technique doesn't use a whole lot of Chakra, and interestingly, it only uses one hand seal, and that is to gather the Chakra in the sand. This attack can definitely prove deadly, and if anyone is caught into it, the results will most likely be very serious injuries or death.

Sabaku Sousou (Desert Graveyard)
This technique is Gaara's alternative to the Desert Coffin. Using Chakra to manipulate sand once again, Gaara creates a big mass of sand that covers the entire enemy's body. This technique can be used on top of Sabaku Kyuu, since the enemy will be unable to move. Once on the enemy, Gaara will use his chakra to have the sand compact closely together, smashing the enemy's body into pieces. Some times, Gaara will also use his energy to levitate the opponent into the air, and then smash him up, creating a big rain of blood. This technique is believed to use more Chakra than Sabaku Kyuu, since more Chakra is needed to contract the sand together and smash the opponent. Both in this attack and Sabaku Kyuu , the sand moves at extremely fast speeds, so it is really hard to dodge, unless fighting against a TaiJutsu user. However, either way, Gaara's offense is just as good as his defense.

As you all can see, Gaara has many diverse techniques up his sleeve. Although he doesn't use any weapons at all, he does use Suna Shuriken No Jutsu, which creates metal-sharp shurikens just from sand. He also has his own variation of Bunshin No Jutsu, Suna Bunshin, which functions in the exact same way as the classic technique, but with sand instead of normal Chakra clones. Where is all that Chakra coming from though? The answer lies hidden in a demon similar to Kyuubi, hidden deep inside Gaara. When Gaara is desperate for victory, that sand demon, Shukaku, comes out, taking over Gaara's body and killing uncontrollably. Its power may be greater than Kyuubi's and it was sealed inside of Gaara when he was born, as mentioned above. Shukaku's powers are enormous; however, theres a catch for him to be released. Gaara, or the medium, needs to be sleeping. This means that Shukaku can either be brought to life by himself, fighting against Gaara, or by Gaara's will. Gaara can use the Spell of Fake Sleep, putting himself to sleep, and releasing Shukaku.

Shukaku has many techniques of his own, such as Renkyuudan, which creates huge balls made of Chakra. Normally, Shukaku appears as a huge racoon, and is about the size of GamaBunta the Frog. Once he is out, Shukaku is pretty much independent, although he always has Gaara attached to part of him, sleeping waist-high in sand. Besides just being totally released, Gaara can partially release Shukaku, growing parts of his body. For example, Gaara can choose to get Shukaku's huge arms, and use them to punch with a lot of force. What he most usually uses though, is Shukaku's Chakra, the source of Gaara's powers. Combining the magical powers of his gourd, the demon inside him, and the destiny of a great shinobi, Gaara is definitely one of the most powerful ninjas in Naruto.

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