Gaara of the Sand

 

Name: Sabaku No Gaara (Gaara of the Sand)

Nicknames: "Sand Spirit" (some students), "Brother" (Naruto), "Shukaku" (his enemies/when his tanuki traits show)

Age: 13

Species: Half Human/Half Tanuki (Racoon-Dog)

Powers: Sand manipulation and can shapeshift into a one-tailed tanuki

Occupation: Student

Personality: In the majority of his childhood, Gaara was a calm and emotionless individual. Underneath that was an unstable personality; showing no mercy to his enemies and becoming bloodthirsty on some occasions. Due to his "split personality", he would sometimes talk to himself and became an insomniac, fearing that "Shukaku" would take over. He only cared about himself and aimed for protecting himself. When he had his fight with Naruto and lost, he realized that he gave up easily on his life problems. He now tries to be like Naruto by attempting to make friends, improve the relationships he has already, and finding someone else to live for. He started accepting his other personality and trying to move away from his blood-lust. Although he doesn't express himself much, he is still making an effort to becoming better. In some rare occasions though, he can shift into the other personality.

(Shukaku) Like Kurama to Naruto, Shukaku is the opposite of Gaara; wild, cheerful, and short-tempered. Full with pride, he thinks highly of himself and would sometimes brag about his abilities. He can get very defensive, his top priority to protect himself first. On full moon nights, he gets bloodthirsty, wanting to kill anyone on sight. He hates the people who hated him and would only show respect to those who treat him as an equal. For some reason, he has a grudge on Kurama, always trying to beat his rival at his game. It could be due to Kurama thinking that the number of tails a cursed being has equals strength, viewing Shukaku as the weakest.

History: Gaara has a similar background to Naruto's, except with a few differences. He was born in the desert where only the strongest survive and enemies surrounded people everyday. His father and mother, Rasa and Karura, had the ability to move sand at their will with Rasa's sand rumored to be gold. Unfortunately, Karura's side of her family was one of ones cursed by a demon with Karura's third born prophesied to become part tanuki. Karura did not care, however, and loved his son dearly. Holding the baby while dying, she named him Gaara and promised to protect him all throughout his life before she passed on. After that, young Gaara was innocent and curious of the world, trying to learn from it and be warm and caring to others despite other people fearing him. Due to his mother's will, he inherited sand manipulation and the sand acted on its own accord, protecting him. Rasa wanted him to be strong and control the power to its full potential, so he ordered his brother-in-law, Yashamaru, to kill him on the night of a full moon. On that night, Gaara lost the only person who cared for him, causing him to snap and shapeshift for the first time into Shukaku, destroying everything in his path. Rasa determined his son to be a failure, looking down on him.

Growing up, Gaara resolved for living for himself, only doing things that benefited himself while teaming up with his older siblings, a wind magic user named Temari and his older brother Kankuro, who specialized in poisons and puppets. Under Rasa's orders, they would infiltrate other villages and tribes, even going on assassination missions. This continued until Gaara turned 13 when he started to lose his sanity one night and ran away from home, his blood lust leading him out into the world. It was then that he came across a boy named Naruto, who was also traveling. Gaara attacked him and the two fought in a long battle. It resulted into Gaara losing, questioning how this stranger beat him. For the remainder of the night, Naruto told him about himself; about how other people treated him, his goals of being acknowledged and how his strength came from caring for people that he met along the way. Surprised at this, Gaara realized what Naruto was saying and thanked him, admiring the individual who was just like him. Once the two healed, both Gaara and Naruto decided to travel together to become better people and control themselves, heading towards the Arcane Magia Academy in Lunavilla.

Gaara now lives at the academy, trying to improve himself. He shares a room with .

Face Claims: Gaara and Shukaku Ichibi from "Naruto".