Sunagakure

is the hidden village of the Land of Wind. As one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries, Sunagakure has a Kage as its leader known as the Kazekage, who resides in a spherical structure in the center of the village. There have been five Kazekage, the most recent being Gaara.



Wind Release is seemingly more common amongst shinobi of this village than most others. The Puppet Technique, and from their performance in the Fourth Shinobi World War, the Cloth Binding Technique also seem to be common techniques of theirs. Shinobi from this village believe that the accomplishment of a mission predominates the lives of the ninja trying to accomplish it. As such, they are known to be ruthless in battle meaning to them, failure is not an option. Should failure seem inevitable, a Suna shinobi would almost surely try to make a success of their mission in some way or another, as seen when Kankurō secretly retrieved from a piece of Sasori's clothing, as a means to track Akatsuki to their hideout. The first passage to travel into the valley is in a cleft between two cliff faces which provides a natural defence for the village making the area very hard to attack. The buildings also seem to be made of clay or stucco which would help to keep the buildings cool and allow them to also withstand the raging sand storms which are common in the area.

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.

Some time in Sunagakure's history they created the Puppet Brigade in an attempt to create a technique 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 technique, 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.

At some point, 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 explosive tag traps and killed several guards, as well as reactivating two of his sleeper agents Yūra and Mukade, while Deidara in his bid to draw out the Kazekage, nearly devastated the entire village were it not for Gaara's Air 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.

When Sunagakure entered the Fourth Shinobi World War, its Cloth Binding Technique users were vital in dealing with Kabuto Yakushi's resurrected shinobi. This technique caused them to make up the majority of the Sealing Teams in every division of the Alliance. Shortly before the war, Kankurō is appointed commander of the Surprise Attack Division.

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 utilising techniques affiliated with sand (such as Sand Clone).
 * Two very famous and powerful ninja from this village hold sand-related epithets: Gaara of the Sand Waterfall and Sasori of the Red Sand.
 * Strangely enough, none of the characters from the Sunagakure have stated last name in the series, even though it's the second most frequent village in Naruto.
 * During the Fourth Shinobi World War, two Sunagakure shinobi which fought alongside Temari were seen wielding fans similar to the hers. This might be an indication that the use of these fans may be a skill taught in the village.