Sand

Sand is a versatile material, most often employed by the shinobi originating from Sunagakure for various purposes, including numerous supplementary functions ranging from concealment to disguise. However, the tool itself rose to prominence in the hands of the jinchūriki of the One-Tailed Shukaku, whom acquired the ability to manipulate sand through the beast, with the most renowned amongst these being Gaara.

While Gaara is capable of controlling any sand, he keeps in his gourd, also made from this sand. This sand is infused with his chakra, allowing him to make faster and more powerful attacks, as well as being used to make his Shield of Sand. Due to the number of people Gaara has killed, the sand smells of blood, as noted by Kiba. It was also noted by both Gaara's father and uncle that the sand would always protect Gaara, because it has his mother's will in it.

Sand includes a wide variety of minerals, and Gaara can select the hardest minerals to create stronger defences and, in the anime, offences.

When in need of more sand, Gaara can crush the soil with the sand he has, to create more sand. Although this sand is more difficult to control than his specially-made sand, it can provide for the amount needed for large-scale techniques, such as the Quicksand Waterfall Flow.

The sand can be countered to some degree by substances that make it heavier, such as gold, or in the anime, by making it wet. . However against the Chakra-infused Sand which Gaara carries, the Gold Dust was shown to be inferior and didn't weigh down this kind of sand when they clashed but were even in power.

It should also be noted that Gaara can also apply other jutsus by using the sand as a medium, such as for the Binding Tag Seal.

Other Uses

 * Kankurō used sand to disguise his puppets, allowing him to make his puppets appear as another person, or as himself, to trick enemies into attacking his puppets instead of him.
 * In the anime, Sasori also used sand to make a clone of himself as shown during his fight with Kankurō when he escaped from Black Ant.
 * In the anime, Temari also utilised sand in her Dust Wind Technique to cause her opponent to lose their footing in battle.
 * Because of the versatility of sand as a weapon, the Third and Fourth Kazekage both crafted their own versions of sand manipulation via the use of their Magnet Release kekkei genkai to manipulate iron and gold dust respectively.