Baki: The Sensei of the Sand Siblings

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Sharp, invisible, deadly: the wind of Sunagakure. Baki, a jonin of Sunagakure, leads the most feared siblings in the Hidden Sand Village: Gaara, Kankuro and Temari, whom he accompanies to the Chunin Exams. This profile looks at his signature technique, an intangible Wind Release that cuts from a distance, at his darkest act — the murder of Hayate Gekko, the Konoha referee who had overheard the invasion plan he discussed with Kabuto — and at his loyalty to Gaara. He became an adviser, but he was never Kazekage.

The mentor of the most feared siblings in Sunagakure: cold, sharp and loyal, Baki trained Gaara and his siblings. Meet the jonin of the invisible wind.

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The Jonin of the Hidden Sand

Baki is a jonin of Sunagakure, the Hidden Sand Village, and a member of its advisory council: he sits there with the title of "Senior." His only recorded chakra nature is Wind Release, the wind element. The databooks — the first on page 90, the third on page 131 — give him thirty years old in Part I of the story and thirty-four in Part II, with 188.2 cm and 80 kg recorded in Part I, blood type A, and a birthday set on July 4.

His administrative record is just as detailed: ninja registration number 38-212, graduation from the Ninja Academy at eight, promotion to the rank of chunin at twelve. The character first appears in chapter 65 of the manga and episode 37 of the anime; he is voiced in Japanese by Joji Nakata and in English by Sam Riegel, with Richard Casino lending his voice in the game Naruto: Ultimate Ninja. He also appears in a novel, in film, in an OVA and in several video games.

One point calls for precise attribution. The claim that Baki served under several Kazekage administrations, with leadership qualities respected in the village, comes neither from the manga nor from the anime: it traces back to the Naruto Mobile game data alone. Nor should he be confused with the Kazekage himself: Baki never held that title, and his authority is exercised from the council.

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The Sensei of the Sand Siblings

Baki commands the Sand Siblings (砂の三姉弟, Suna no Sankyodai), the squad formed by the three children of the Fourth Kazekage: Temari, Kankuro and Gaara. The team appears in chapter 35 of the manga and episode 20 of the anime, and he is the one who supervises it as the jonin in charge during the Chunin Exams held in Konoha. The Sho no Sho mini-databook, page 3, adds an explicit mention: Gaara was once Baki's student.

What he thinks of each of them is known. He trusts the abilities of his three students, but faults Kankuro for not taking his fights seriously enough, and frequently worries about the mental stability of Gaara and about the control the latter holds over Shukaku. During the preliminaries, he says little: he gives a few pieces of advice and warns Gaara to be careful when he kills. He also comments on the power of Rock Lee and fears that Gaara may lose his match.

The anime gives him a command scene the manga does not have. In the arc of the support mission to Sunagakure, episodes 216 to 220 of the first series, he recommends asking Konoha for help before entrusting Kankuro, Temari and Gaara with the pursuit of Matsuri's kidnappers. The two elder siblings protest: the target is Gaara, and if the mission falls to them, they want Baki to come along at the very least. Permission is refused, another mission having been assigned to him.

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The Blade of Wind

The Blade of Wind (風の刃, Kaze no Yaiba) is the only technique his profile lists for him: an offensive Wind Release ninjutsu, classified as A-rank, of short to mid range, first seen in chapter 92 of the manga and episode 54 of the anime. The English television dub renamed it "Wind Sword." Baki emits chakra from his fingertips to form an invisible sword of wind; since the opponent cannot see it, and the handling is precise, it is hard to parry. Baki himself calls it unstoppable.

The first databook, page 172, calibrates it by comparison: the Blade of Wind is to the Kamaitachi technique — the one Temari wields — what a longsword is to a kunai. The anime adds a variant the manga does not show: there the technique is chained in bursts, in the form of projected discs followed by trails of wind, with enough power to send a grown man into the air. Baki's very name may be a contraction of バキューム (bakyumu), the Japanese transcription of the English word "vacuum."

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694 Missions and 2.5 in Stamina: Baki by the Numbers

The first databook, Rin no Sho, published on July 9, 2002 and covering chapters 1 to 119, devotes page 90 to Baki. All eight ratings appear there: Ninjutsu 4, Taijutsu 3.5, Genjutsu 3.5, Intelligence 3.5, Strength 4, Speed 4.5, Stamina 2.5 and Hand Seals 4, for a total of 29.5. Speed is his best rating, stamina his lowest; the same book sums the character up by saying that he excels "in a balanced way" across varied fields.

The mission count, credited to the databooks without a page reference, stands at 694 completed missions: 116 D-rank, 210 C-rank, 251 B-rank, 106 A-rank and 11 S-rank. The profile entries complete the picture: his hobby is sand bathing, his favorite dish is freeze-dried tofu, his least favorite is horse sashimi, and his motto is 堅忍不抜 (kennin fubatsu), "indomitable perseverance."

Two notes on presentation, this time outside the databooks, are worth pointing out. Baki's face is used as a mask, in a cameo, in the closing omake of episode 129 of Naruto Shippuden, alongside those of Tobi and Haku. And the character does not look quite the same from one medium to the next: the manga gives him only two red marks, on the right side of his face, whereas the anime adds some on the left side, with episode 9 of Shippuden as the reference.

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The Invasion of Konoha

Baki first appears as a spectator at the preliminaries, then he is seen again after the death of Dosu, killed as he was trying to eliminate Gaara. It is at that moment that he meets Kabuto Yakushi to discuss the invasion that Sunagakure and Otogakure are preparing against Konoha. When the two men spot a Hidden Leaf ninja listening in the shadows, it is Baki who offers to kill him, as a token of trust between the two allied villages.

The intruder is Hayate Gekko, the referee of the preliminaries, who has just learned from that conversation the joint plans of the two villages. He tries to flee, Baki catches him, and the exchange ends on the Blade of Wind. The Sunagakure jonin salutes his opponent's skill before killing him: faced with such a young shinobi, Baki observes that Konoha has many talented ninja.

Two less spectacular acts close out his preparation for the invasion. Baki himself carries to the Fourth Kazekage the scroll received from Kabuto, the one containing Otogakure's plan of attack. He then gathers his three students to lay out Sunagakure's arrangements for them, warning them that everything will rest largely on Gaara's abilities. These two scenes place his rank in the chain of command: he speaks to the Kazekage, then to his genin.

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What the Duel Against Hayate Gekko Says About Baki

The duel is short, but it documents precisely what Baki is capable of. He is the one who strikes first, with taijutsu, which implies a certain practice of that art. Hayate answers with the Crescent Moon Dance, an A-rank kenjutsu technique in which the user and two shadow clones strike simultaneously. The blow falls short: the blade only goes through part of the flak jacket, reaches the shoulder and lodges there. Baki takes it without flinching and holds back with a single hand his opponent, who is trying to pull his sword out (chapter 92, pages 8 and 9).

Another detail from the manga matters: Baki recognizes a high-level Konoha technique on sight as well as the way to counter it, a sign that he knows the repertoire of the other villages. The anime, for its part, considerably expands the confrontation in episode 307 of Shippuden: there Baki keeps close-range assaults at bay for a long stretch, forces Hayate to fall back on shadow clones to open up a gap, defeats two of them, and spits out a powder to blur the vision.

The same episode adds that Kabuto would have reanimated Baki if the latter had lost his fight. The anime also shows Hayate turning the powder back on the one who used it, using it as a substitution, then landing a kick to his face. One question remains unanswered: Yugao Uzuki, Hayate's partner, swore to avenge him, and it is unknown how that score was or will be settled.

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After the Retreat Order: Genma Shiranui and the Bodies of the Kazekage

In the exam finals, Gaara loses control earlier than planned. Baki orders Temari and Kankuro to get him to safety, noting that this premature transformation slightly alters their plan. He cannot follow them: Genma Shiranui — the tokubetsu jonin who had replaced Hayate as referee for the finals — intercepts him and asks him whether Orochimaru is leading the assault.

The fight has no winner: it is cut short by the calling off of the invasion. What it mainly gives is a measure of strength — Genma is described there as capable of holding his own against an elite jonin like Baki, and the example cited is the moment when he throws two kunai to stop two of his opponent's in mid-flight. Baki, for his part, had shown in Part I that facing high-ranking Konoha shinobi did not worry him.

The sequence with the heaviest consequences comes next. It is Baki who discovers the decomposed bodies of the Fourth Kazekage and his bodyguards — Rasa, Gaara's father — and who understands at that instant that all of Sunagakure has been played by Orochimaru, who had taken on the features of the village leader in order to manipulate the Hidden Sand more conveniently.

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Loyalty to Gaara

After the failure of the invasion, the two villages become allies, and the Sand Siblings are sent to lend a hand to the team that set out to retrieve Sasuke, as a gesture of good will. Baki's three students then rise in rank: Gaara becomes Kazekage, Kankuro and Temari make jonin, the former taking charge of village security, the latter becoming an ambassador. Together, they form the strongest team in Sunagakure, writes Naruto: One Decade, One Hundred Ninja, page 135.

One precise gesture stands out: before his former student, now the Fifth Kazekage, Baki bows and addresses him with an honorific title, even though he was his teacher. This respect becomes absolute once Gaara is mentally stabilized and installed at the head of the village. The moral portrait that goes with it points the same way: loyal, caring, respected.

This nonetheless deserves qualifying. Like many Hidden Sand ninja, trained to put completion of the mission ahead of comradeship, Baki is described as ruthless and severe in combat. His experience gives him great confidence in his own strength, and he is often seen taking charge of military operations — a role he will hold again during Deidara's raid on Sunagakure, at the start of Part II.

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The Sunagakure Council and Yura, the Traitor Under His Command

The Sunagakure council (砂ご意見番, Suna Go-Ikenban) exists to help the Kazekage govern and to make sure decisions serve the village and its people. It appears to have twelve members, more commonly called "Seniors," and its discussions are held in the Kazekage's office, the room lined with the statues of all the Kazekage. The institution appears in chapter 247 of the manga and in episode 216 of the anime, which calls it 上忍会議 (Jonin Kaigi), "the jonin meeting".

Baki sits on it, and the Sho no Sho mini-databook, page 3, specifies his rank: he is a senior member of it, with Yura notably among his subordinates. The same book immediately adds the caveat that counts, because Yura was not what he appeared to be. A Sunagakure jonin and a trusted member of the council for four years, he was in fact a sleeper agent of Sasori, placed under the hold of a manipulating sand technique that conceals memory.

Chapter 247, page 16, shows what his awakening produces: as the Akatsuki draws near, Yura single-handedly wipes out the entire force charged with guarding the village gate, jonin and Anbu included, in order to let Sasori and Deidara in. The same chapter designates him as "commander" (隊長), most likely of the border force he had himself set up against the organization. For four years, then, the council had counted among its members the man who would open Sunagakure.

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Gaara's Abduction: Evacuate, Recall, Convince Chiyo

The arc of the Kazekage's abduction covers chapters 245 to 281 of the manga and episodes 1 to 32 of Naruto Shippuden. During the fight that pits Gaara against Deidara, Baki wastes no time: he orders the evacuation of Sunagakure and has the remaining shinobi prepare offensive measures meant to support their new Kazekage. The story then shows him worried about the condition of Kankuro, wounded by Sasori.

When Kankuro, poisoned, manages to speak his attacker's name — "Sasori of the Red Sand" — Baki immediately tries to recall the squad sent after the Akatsuki. He then discovers that contact with it has been lost since Kankuro was recovered and that it is very probably dead. Rather than convene the council once again, he goes to fetch two retired elders, Chiyo and Ebizo, Sasori's grandmother and great-uncle.

To win their help, he reveals to them that Sasori belongs to the Akatsuki, and that choice tells his sense of priorities. One last gesture closes the arc on his side: during the assault by Kakashi's team, part of the council wants to name a successor to Gaara rather than go and fetch him, and when Kankuro throws himself at the man who suggested it, Baki stops him on the grounds that they are standing in front of the Kazekage monuments.

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The Novel Gaara Hiden: Baki Investigates Tojuro

Everything that follows belongs to the novel, not to the manga. Gaara Hiden: A Sandstorm Mirage (我愛羅秘伝 砂塵幻想) is an original story written by Ukyo Kodachi and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto, the fifth volume in the Naruto Hiden series, published on June 4, 2015 in 210 pages. In it, Baki replaces Kankuro at the last moment on security for the arranged marriage meeting set up for Gaara: a replacement that both Gaara and he find suspicious, to the point of reinforcing the security detail.

The meeting is indeed attacked by several missing-nin. Afterward, Baki recommends keeping to the planned schedule, so as not to encourage other criminals to try the same thing, and gives his political reading of the attack: its aim would be to eliminate Gaara, who does his politics behind the scenes, and replace him with Kankuro, who commands on the front line and is adored by the rank-and-file infantry. Gaara then asks him to dig into the affair as a whole.

It is again Baki who comes to tell him of Hakuto's abduction. Before leaving alone to rescue her, Gaara entrusts him with a targeted investigation into Tojuro, the number two of the Sunagakure council. The novel proves him right: Baki locates and kills the missing-nin Tojuro had hired to assassinate the Kazekage, while Kankuro proceeds with the councilor's arrest. This entire plotline exists only in the novel.

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Summary Table

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FAQ

• Who is Baki in Naruto?
  A powerful jonin of Sunagakure (the Hidden Sand Village), a Wind Release specialist, sensei of the Sand Siblings (Gaara, Kankuro, Temari) and, later, an influential adviser in Sunagakure. He was never Kazekage.
• Is Baki really Gaara's teacher?
  Yes. He supervises the three children of the Fourth Kazekage and accompanies them as the jonin in charge during the Chunin Exams in Konoha.
• How does Baki kill Hayate Gekko?
  Hayate, the referee of the preliminaries, overhears the secret meeting between Baki and Kabuto about the invasion. Spotted, he is caught and joins battle; his dance fails to shake Baki, who finishes him with his invisible Blade of Wind.
• Did Baki betray Konoha of his own free will?
  No. Sunagakure, on its Kazekage's orders, had allied with Orochimaru — without knowing that Orochimaru had killed the real Kazekage and taken his appearance. Baki and Sunagakure were being manipulated; they only discover the betrayal after the invasion.
• Did Baki become Kazekage?
  No — he should not be confused with the Kazekage. It is Gaara who becomes the Fifth Kazekage; Baki remains a jonin and then an adviser, and supports him with deep respect despite being his former teacher.

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In summary

A stern mentor turned devoted servant, Baki walks with Gaara from unstable child to respected Kazekage: a quiet loyalty, but one of the finest in Sunagakure.

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