Gaara's Jinchūriki Forms

Gaara is the jinchūriki of the One-Tailed Shukaku. Unlike the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, Shukaku doesn't have an unnaturally large supply of chakra that Gaara can use. Instead, Shukaku's presence inside Gaara allows him to manipulate sand at will. As an added bonus for Gaara, Shukaku itself can move the sand on its own to protect Gaara from any harm it can in order to preserve its own life. It should be noted that, unlike Naruto's constant battle for control over his body with the Nine-Tails, Gaara is technically never subjugated to this. Because Shukaku is said to devour the soul of its jinchūriki if they were to fall asleep, Gaara has spent upwards to fifteen years not sleeping at all and when the series started he was driven mostly from a desire for his own existence, and bloodlust, the latter being a trait Shukaku can easily influence.

Controlled Jinchūriki Form
Gaara's jinchūriki form is more or less simply him in control of his body and power. To this end, he can manipulate any grain of sand, although it is easier if it has been mixed with his chakra and blood. If need be, he can even create more sand by pulling more from the earth and crushing it to make sand. The defining feature of this and all of his forms is that the sand has a mind and will on its own. Without even wanting it, his body is constantly protected by the Shield of Sand, an automatic shield to protect him. Unlike Naruto, who can only transform when angered, Gaara can use his forms at will by using Sphere of Sand. Though at one point in the final filler arc in Naruto, Gaara transformed with anger.

Half Shukaku Form
When Gaara was in a rage after a fight with Sasuke Uchiha, he slowly slipped into his half Shukaku form. In this form the gourd on his back slowly breaks down and begins to cover his body, covering his arms, and then his face distorting it and giving it Shukaku's features such as the yellow eye and markings, he even grows his one tail from the gourd which itself functions like a normal tail. In this form, his speed has increased. He can use the sand on his arms to stretch his limbs to extraordinary lengths. This form allows him to even fire off his limbs at will, but still have them remain under his control, as he was able to pin Sakura Haruno to a tree and then slowly crush her as his battle with Naruto continued.

Miniature Shukaku Form
During his fight with Naruto, Gaara allowed the sand to cover his entire upper body, with only his feet remaining uncovered. While his facial features still remain slightly human, both his eyes resemble Shukaku's with the same markings around its body. Notably, the "love" kanji remains on his head.

In this form, Gaara is able to use Sand Shuriken with apparent great ease as most of his body is now sand. He can use Shukaku's wind element as he could now use the Wind Release: Infinite Sand Cloud Great Breakthrough. His speed, attack, and defense greatly rises. In addition much like Naruto's chakra shield, the sand is capable of absorbing a wide variety of attacks. However, the defense given to his body still has one weak spot. Since his lower half is not covered, as seen by Naruto, a small explosion beneath his tail can make the entire sand form crumble, and fall apart. This was Gaara's downfall during his battle with Naruto.

Full Shukaku Form
Technically this isn't a jinchūriki form as its a transformation into Shukaku itself. In desperate situations, Gaara would instantly create a giant copy of Shukaku with himself hidden inside. While he is awake, Gaara still has control of Shukaku's body and can fight "normally" with it. While in this form, Gaara transfers his eyesight to that of Shukaku's body in turn resulting in his own eyes losing their pupils. Unlike his smaller Shukaku form, this seems to be less able reform itself if damage, if it can at all. For example, Gamabunta cut off one of the Shukaku's arms and it wasn't able to reform.

When Gaara needs Shukaku's full power, he would expose his upper body on top of Shukaku's head and use the Feigning Sleep Technique, which allows Shukaku to take full control over its body. While taking over the body, Shukaku's eyes will become more apparent, changing from a simple light brown pupil, to its original version of a yellow pupil with a small black star with four blue dots around it. Shukaku can use Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet, by pressing compressed air out of it's stomach, to cause major blunt damage to its opponents.

The major weak spot of the full Shukaku form is as expected by Gaara himself being Shukaku's chakra that keeps the large creation going. When Naruto successfully hit Gaara, he woke him, stopping Shukaku's increase in power as Gamabunta stated the longer Gaara was asleep, the more of Shukaku's real power manifested and if asleep too long the Shukaku will eat away at the host's psyche until it takes complete control. After Gaara was knocked out, the entire Shukaku copy was shattered. Its full power is never seen as it was destroyed in a short time.

Trivia

 * In the games Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3, Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja 4, and Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja 5, a miniature Shukaku form of Gaara is playable as a transformation.