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Gaara's life was one of torment and hatred. The sand that protects Gaara is the work of the demon Shukaku. This demon was once said to be the living soul of a Sand priest, we now know it is one of the bijuu, a tailed demon of the ancient world. Kazekage had the bijuu imbued into his unborn son Gaara by Sand Kunoichi Chiyo. Though Shukaku protects Gaara from harm, it has caused him deep emotional and psychological harm. Whenever Gaara sleeps, Shukaku begins to eat more and more away at Gaara's psyche. This has led Gaara to limit his sleep to try and protect whatever mental stability he has left. Seeing that Gaara was unable to control the incarnation when young, Kazekage ordered Gaara killed. The sand constantly protected Gaara though and foiled any attempt at assassination. Gaara has cursed his father and those in the village for what they have done to him but he still acts under their wishes to participate in the Chuunin Exam. It is during this period that Gaara begins to lose more of his mental stability, eventually fully giving himself to the demon and allowing its full large form to take shape, that of a Tanuki, or Raccoon-Dog. It is briefly allowed to run rampant on its own while Gaara engages in a forced sleep, but Naruto is able to wake and injure Gaara and Shukaku crumbled back into sand.

After being injured Gaara and Naruto are near exhausted, Gaara remained motionless on the ground, only able to watch as Naruto summoned the strength to keep crawling towards Gaara to stop him from further hurting Sakura. Naruto explained to Gaara that he grew up in a similar fashion, that his life could have turned out the same had people not acknowledged and cared for him like Iruka and Naruto's fellow teammates. Naruto explained that one can become truly strong not by fighting for oneself, but for those precious to them. It was then Gaara was able to fully understand that he had been living his life in the wrong manner. Shortly thereafter Kankurou and Temari appeared to help Gaara. Gaara let them know he was finished fighting, and had the team retreat. As they made their way back to the Wind Country, Gaara did something surprising to both Temari and Kankurou, he apologized for hurting them in the past.

After Sand had retreated the country discovered that they had been manipulated into invading Leaf by Orochimaru and not under the direction of their Kage. After conceding defeat, Sand and Leaf became allies again. Months later when Shikamaru and his Genin team went on a mission to retrieve Sasuke from the hands of Orochimaru, Tsunade requested a favor from the Sand Country. When Shikamaru and his team were in a dire situation, the three Sand Genin returned to lend assistance to their allies the Leaf. Gaara assisted Rock Lee in fighting Sound ninja Kimimaro. Kimimaro went to his limits and would have surely killed Gaara, had his sickness not got the better of him and ended his life.

In the period after, Gaara ascended to the position of Kazekage some time after the death of the former Kage, his father. With a less hostile and more stable personality, he was welcomed by his people and popular, although it was later revealed that he and every Kazekage before him were more like figureheads with the village's council acting more in the administrative department. Gaara was attacked by Akatsuki member Deidara and sacrificed his own safety to protect the village when Deidara threatened to reduce it to rubble. He was taken to Akatsuki's base in the River Country and through a complicated process, had Shukaku removed from him. However, as with all victims of the process, he was killed by it. His corpse was kept by Deidara as a trophy, but Naruto and Kakashi defeated him and retrieved it, where Chiyo gave up her life-force to resurrect him. It should be noted that despite the Shukaku bound to him, Gaara is still able to control sand with his own chakra.

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Gamabunta is the personal summon of Jiraiya and Naruto. Before his death, the Fourth Hokage also had a blood contract with Gamabunta. He called on the toad boss to help him battle the Kyuubi. Later, under the training of Jiraiya, Naruto would learn to summon him. Gamabunta is very protective of his sons Gamakichi and Gamatatsu. He will also fight hard for the one who summons him if that have drank sake together.

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Gamaken is a large attack and defense-type toad. He regards himself as slow of mind but shows his strength in battle. For that reason Jiraiya summoned him when he squared off against his former student Pain. Gamaken was able to defend against many of Pain's giant summons, but his slow-mind kept him from picking up on Pain's strange fighting style.

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When Naruto fought Gaara in order to save Sakura, he tried to call forth the chakra to summon Gamabunta. Unfortunately he lacked the chakra and instead called forth Gamakichi. At first Gamakichi wasn't too impressed with Naruto, but after seeing his strong will, he began to respect him. This respect helped Naruto after he managed to summon Gamabunta. Gamakichi's good word on Naruto helped convince his father to fight for Naruto against Shukaku.

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When the Sannin battle erupted when Jiraiya and Naruto sought Tsunade, Jiraiya was drugged and unable to properly use his charka. Seeking to summon Gamabunta, Jiraiya failed and summoned Gamakichi. Seeing this Naruto tried as well, he failed, instead summoning Gamatatsu for the first time. Gamatatsu is very naive and not very battle smart, having to rely on his older brother for direction.

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Gantetsu claimed to be a ninja from the Earth Country, whether this was really true or not is unknown. Naruto had the unfortunate luck of spilling food on Gantetsu's expensive suit. Gantetsu and his friend threatened Naruto, saying he had to pay Gantetsu for his ruined suit. Jiraiya said both guys were weak and proceeded to make an example on Gantetsu who was charging to attack. Gantetsu served as the test subject on which to show Naruto a new move, the Rasengan.

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The bridge Tazuna was building to connect the islands of the Wave Country posed a threat to Gatô's shipping company. This company was also no more than a front for his illegal drug smuggling operations. He hired a Missing-Nin from Hidden Mist village named Momochi Zabuza to keep Tazuna from completing the bridge. After Zabuza was injured in his fight against Kakashi, Gatô saw no more need for Zabuza so he fired him. Though Gatô was surrounded by hired mercenaries who were to fight for him, the injured Zabuza attacked these men in a direct strike to kill Gatô. Zabuza suffered further wounds in this attack but he succeeded in his goal, killing Gatô and ending his scheme to stop the completion of the bridge. The current status of Gatô's shipping company is unknown.

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After the preliminaries, Hayate attempted to listen in on a conversation between Baki of Hidden Sand and Kabuto, who he learned was actually a Hidden Sound spy. Hayate learned the two hidden villages were going to invade Leaf. As he listened in, he was discovered by Baki and Kabuto. Hayate fled but Baki followed. The two men fought on a roof near Kikyou Castle. Hayate drew his sword and used the Dance of the Crescent Moon technique, but Baki's flak jacket stopped the blade. Using the opportunity to strike back, Baki used his blade of the wind technique and killed Hayate.

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Genyuumaru and his family had been captured in the past by Orochimaru to be used in his experiments. When Orochimaru's body was nearing its end, he held a battle to the death match between the Sound ninja he had been holding contained. Genyuumaru was the victor of the match. In exchange for winning and taking his body, Orochimaru granted him one wish, to release his family who were held captive. Orochimaru then used his forbidden technique Fushi Tensei to take Genyuumaru's body as his own.

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Working under the direction of Zabuza, the Demon brothers were ordered to find and kill Tazuna. When they surprised Team 7 it appeared at first that they had killed Hatake Kakashi. When they were seconds away from killing Tazuna, Kakashi appeared to stop the two brothers. It had turned out Kakashi had been aware of their presence the whole time and let them attack just to see who their target was. It is unknown what happened to the Demon Brothers after being captured.