Does Gaara Die in Naruto Shippuden?

Death is a popular topic to talk about in the Naruto franchise. Some characters live while others die. Some characters are immortal. And some, and eventually A LOT of characters are simultaneously brought back to life in the series. But today we answer the question, does Gaara die in Naruto Shippuden?

Does Gaara Die in Naruto Shippuden?

If you’re okay with spoilers and looking for the short and sweet answer, then yes at some point in the series Gaara does in fact die. However, he only remains dead for a small period of time and is eventually brought back to life. For more details on how and why, the information is all right below here!

Who is Gaara in Naruto?

Naruto is one of the most well-known and beloved anime/manga franchises of all time, and has introduced many beloved characters into the franchise over the many years. Gaara is one of those beloved characters, but he did not start out beloved by everyone. Gaara was first introduced in the anime Naruto in Season 1 Episode 21 “Identify Yourself: Powerful New Rivals” and chapter 35 of the manga, where he was actually introduced as an upcoming antagonist of the Chunin Exams Arc.

It wasn’t until later on until episode 48 where we finally saw this come to fruition where he fought against another beloved character, Rock Lee, and almost killed him.

Gaara would then later go on to fight Naruto in episode 77 where the two clashed for multiple episodes until eventually, Naruto won. After this fight, he would then go through a substantial change in his personality, where in his last few appearances in Naruto, he would begin to make amends with those he had wronged in the past and began making some friends, starting with Naruto.

Gaara in Naruto Shippuden

Naruto Shippuden is the next iteration of the franchise where it involves a two year time skip in the series. Within the two year time skip, Gaara had become a very renowned figure in the shinobi world, eventually becoming the leader of his village otherwise known as the “Kazekage“. He would make his first appearance in Shippuden in episode 2: The Akatsuki Makes Its Move, and then a few episodes later do battle with one of the Akatsuki members, Deidara, and lose.

Gaara’s Death and Resurrection

When Gaara lost his fight against Deidara, he was then brought to the Akatsuki’s lair where he would become apart of a ritual to extract Shuukaku, the tailed beast residing inside of him. When a jinchuriki such as Gaara loses his/her tailed beast, they die. Thus in episode 17, Shuukaku was fully extracted from Gaara and he died.

However this was not the end for Gaara.

Naruto and his allies would eventually be able to repel the Akatsuki forces for the time being and found their way to Gaara. When they finally returned to the village and with the help of one of Gaara’s closest allies, Granny Chiyo, using a special jutsu to exchange one’s life for another, Granny Chiyo gave up her life to bring Gaara back to life. He would then go on to become one of the most important characters in the franchise later in the series, but this was one of the first times in the series where a character was brought back to life in some shape or form.

And that’s it, so to answer the question Does Gaara die in Naruto Shippuden?, yes but also no at the same time. For more Naruto related content, check out the related articles below.