His entire village hated and feared him for the awful power of the spirit sealed within his body; his own father, before later realizing that Gaara could be an effective tool, wanted him dead. As a result, Gaara became emotionally withdrawn, all but silent, and consumed with a bitter loathing for everyone but himself. He learned to find pleasure and eventually a reason to live in annihilating the numerous assassins sent to kill him – and by extension, anyone who threatened his existence. His insomnia, forced upon him by the fact that the demon inside him would eat away at his personality if he were to fall asleep, made Gaara further unstable.

Gaara's childhood was somewhat similar to Naruto's, albeit more unfortunate due to his lack of anyone to call a friend. Both were lonely and desired to be liked, loved, and acknowledged as an individual, free of others' prejudices — they are themselves, not the demons they were forced to "contain" — and both were driven into a desperate state. While Naruto consequently developed the misconception that pranks and mischief would bring him the attention (more precisely: recognition) he sought, Gaara came to the conclusion that he could preserve and confirm his own existence by killing any and all who challenged it, securing an extreme form of existentialism as his key personality trait. In the absence of others' acknowledgment, he could compensate by valuing only himself to the exclusion of everyone else. Furthermore, while Naruto eventually had Iruka and Team 7 to acknowledge him, Gaara never had anyone to bond with and did not understand the concept of fighting for anything other than himself until his confrontation with Naruto.

Beforehand, both boys tried to gain positive attention by being cheerful (in Naruto's case, overly so), kind, and caring, and both had little success. On one occasion, Gaara used his powers to retrieve a ball for a group of children playing nearby, but the children ran from him. Not wanting to be alone, Gaara pleaded for the children to stay behind, which his sand acted on by grabbing them. In his anger at their cries for help, Gaara almost kills a few of them, only to be stopped by Yashamaru. Later, Gaara brought medicated ointment to the house of the girl whose wounds were the worst, but she slammed the door in his face, calling him a monster.

Six-year-old Gaara with his uncle, Yashamaru.Gaara was trained by his father, but raised mainly by his caring uncle, Yashamaru. Being host to Shukaku gave Gaara almost instinctive control over sand. In addition, the sand itself guarded him, making Gaara a near-impossible person to touch. For six years, everyone in the village feared Gaara, with the exception of Yashamaru. For a time, it seemed as if Yashamaru was the only person who cared for Gaara (not unlike the relationship between Naruto and Iruka, though their relationship was more successful). Gaara's attempts to fit in often led to disaster, leading his father to begin ordering assassination attempts. Gaara had become, in the Kazekage's eyes, a failed experiment and too much of a threat to the other villagers to be allowed to live. Eventually, after quite a few failed attempts, the Kazekage ordered Yashamaru to kill him. Gaara mortally wounded the assassin before he knew it was Yashamaru. Saddened by the unfortunate incident, Gaara tried to apologize and ran next to Yashamaru. Yashamaru then revealed to Gaara that he never loved him. In fact, despite trying to love him, Yashamaru always resented Gaara for taking the life of his beloved sister, who was Gaara's mother. Yashamaru also revealed the source of Gaara's name: 我を愛する修羅, (Ware wo ai suru shura, "a self-loving carnage"). Before Yashamaru died, he opened his vest to reveal explosive notes, and gave his final words: "Please die." Gaara survived yet again, protected by the sand.

According to Yashamaru, Gaara's mother had resented the village for using her and her son as a sacrifice a

As the host of Shukaku, Gaara has the ability to manipulate sand at will. Gaara always carries a gourd on his back filled with an abundant amount of sand. The sand is soaked in the blood of those he has killed and is further enhanced with his chakra. The gourd itself is also made from that sand. Although Gaara can control any sand, and can even make sand himself by using his sand to break apart minerals in the ground, his personal sand is much easier to control because it is pre-treated with his chakra. Other sand puts a greater strain on him since he has to use more chakra to animate it. With his personal sand, not only does Gaara always have his own sand supply, but his attacks also increase in both speed and power.

During battle, Gaara rarely moves, usually guarding and attacking with his sand from a single location. Gaara is rarely seen using taijutsu in the series; in fact, he only physically attacks someone twice throughout the entire series. In the first instance, he smacks Temari away as she tries to convince him to run. Though a minimal exhibition of skill, he does hit her with an inhuman amount of strength. The extreme strength may have been because the Shukaku was rising within him at the time. The second time is at the end of his battle with Naruto when both fighters attempt to punch the other one last time.

Almost all of Gaara's jutsu are sand-based and, although mostly used for simple offense and defense, can be used for a variety of purposes, including floating in the air and spying. While fighting, Gaara often uses a combination of Desert Coffin followed by Desert Funeral to capture and subsequently kill his opponents. Although most of his attacks are small-scale, Gaara can wreak havoc with his Quicksand in the Style of a Waterfall followed by Desert Imperial Funeral, which is essentially a massive version of the former combo. Gaara could potentially kill an entire army single-handedly with this attack (and nearly does so in the second movie), as it is capable of leveling an entire forest. When using his Shukaku forms, Gaara also gains a few wind-based attacks.

Gaara's main defense is his Shield of Sand. This shield protects Gaara from all harm, even against his will, but can still be defeated with enough speed and strength (as demonstrated first by Rock Lee and again by Sasuke Uchiha). If his Shield of Sand fails, Gaara still has his Armor of Sand. This is a layer of highly compacted sand that is wrapped around Gaara's body. Although it gives Gaara an almost ultimate defense, it takes a large toll on Gaara's chakra and his stamina. Instead of using this, Gaara can create a (nearly) impenetrable sphere of sand for an alternative absolute defense, providing a stronger defense that uses less chakra, but confines Gaara to the location of the sphere. The sphere grows spikes to impale anyone who approaches.

Gaara transforming into his human-sized Shukaku form.In desperate situations, Gaara can actually take on the form of the Shukaku, making him many times more powerful than he already is. He does this by layering sand on his body to take the shape of Shukaku. His sphere of sand is used in conjunction with this so he won't be interrupted. Shukaku's personality grows more dominant during this transformation, making Gaara even more homicidal than normal. The process seems to take quite a while, even without interruption. Once finished, Gaara assumes a human-sized version of Shukaku's form. While in his Shukaku form, Gaara switches from his normally long-range battle style to physical attacks augmented by the sand covering him. He primarily relies on his brute strength to destroy everything around him. The few long range attacks he uses are basically sand imitations of ordinary weapons, such as shuriken.

Gaara can also create a life-sized version of Shukaku if his human-sized form doesn't work. He remains buried inside the Shukaku copy, safe from harm but also unable to move. Strangely, this version of