Sunagakure

is the hidden village of the Land of Wind. As one of the five great ninja villages, Sunagakure has a Kage as its leader known as the Kazekage and he lives in a spherical structure in the center of the village. There have been five Kazekage, the most recent being Gaara. The ninja from this village seem to specialize in Wind Release techniques, the Puppet Technique, and from their performance in the Fourth Shinobi World War, the Cloth Binding Technique. The ninja from this village are also known to be ruthless in battle.

Shinobi from this village believe that the accomplishment of a mission predominates the lives of the ninja trying to accomplish it.

History
Sunagakure was founded by the First Kazekage, who gathered the desert-dwelling shinobi under his control with his overwhelming power. At some point the village would come into possession of the One-Tailed Shukaku, and in the coming years the beast was sealed into three different hosts so that its abilities could be studied. The Third Kazekage was able to emulate Shukaku's abilities, earning recognition as the strongest Kazekage in history. Sasori left the village after the emptiness of lacking parental love finally reached a breaking point, but later returned, kidnapped, and murdered the Third, likely sparking the Third Shinobi World War with Sunagakure's attempts to find him.

Sometime in Sunagakure's history they created the Puppet Brigade in an attempt to create a jutsu that would give life to their puppets in order to increase their combat effectiveness. Research for such a technique was started and Chiyo eventually developed One's Own Life Reincarnation, but use of the technique came at too high a price at needing the user's life to complete the jutsu, thus the research was called off and the village continued to use normal puppets.

Sunagakure frequently fought with Konohagakure; Chiyo's attempts to poison enemies during the Second Shinobi World War were often counteracted by Tsunade. To compound this fact, following the Third Shinobi War, the Wind daimyō began outsourcing missions to Konoha, leading to a lack of funding for Sunagakure. To make up for the loss of military power this created, the Fourth Kazekage had Chiyo seal Shukaku into its third host, his own son: Gaara. It was hoped that Gaara would become a weapon for the village, but the power of Shukaku was too unstable and overwhelming for Gaara and the idea was abandoned. The village then had to rely on the development of new techniques and trading of gold dust in order to keep its' standing within the Five Great Shinobi Countries. As time passed, however, the Fourth came to appreciate Gaara's increasing control and returned to relying on him as a weapon.

Another village that this village has frequently fought with, unsurprisingly due to their close proximity, is Iwagakure. This has left the two villages age old enemies with each side holding a grudge against the other, a fact which makes them highly unwilling allies.

Later, Sunagakure was approached by Orochimaru with a proposition for a joint invasion of Konoha. The Fourth Kazekage was killed and impersonated by Orochimaru to give the impression of support, and Sunagakure was falsely led to a devastating loss against Konoha's forces. Once Orochimaru's deceit was discovered Sunagakure re-allied itself with Konoha, gaining much from the peace and leading to new prosperity for the village. By Part II, Gaara would be made Fifth Kazekage to replace his father.

When Akatsuki came to Suna to abduct Gaara, Sasori set several exploding tag traps and killed several guards, as well as reactivating two of his sleeper agents Yūra and Mukade, while Deidara nearly devastated the entire village were it not for Gaara's Sky Sand Protective Wall. Regardless, Gaara was captured, and the village was in dismay.

An urgent message was relayed to Konoha for assistance via messenger bird. After Gaara was rescued and revived by Chiyo (at the cost of her own life) he was safely returned to Suna and is currently still the Kazekage. He lost his tailed beast, but still retained the ability to manipulate sand.

Trivia

 * The second fanbook gives Sunagakure a population size of two out of five stars, a military strength of two out of five stars, and an economic strength of two out of five stars. This gives it the lowest overall score of all the five main shinobi villages.
 * Despite the element of sand being seemingly unique to One-Tailed Shukaku and its jinchūriki, it seems that ninja from this village are capable of utilizing techniques affiliated with sand (such as Sand Clone Technique).
 * Two very famous and powerful ninjas from this village hold epithets: Gaara of the Sand Waterfall and Sasori of the Red Sand.
 * Strangely enough, none of the characters from the Hidden Sand have stated last name in the series, even though it's the second most frequent village in Naruto.