Naruto Shippuden Episode 31

[Kraco]

Heh. Well, let's say those would be a good seed money for him. Because technically speaking he was killed when the bijuu was extracted. That would make the whole bunch of Akatsuki his killers.

[Buffalobiian]

Well, if one Akatsuki could capture Gaara, and don't forget, Deidera was having trouble NOT killing him, then defeating the rest of the team of Akatsuki without his bijuu would seem very difficult. I can remember in past encounters between Gaara and his opponent, it's always been commented that the sand he carries around with him is mixed with his chakra. If we take that to mean his own, and not the bijuu's then Gaara will still be able to manipulate sand, though the effectiveness of it without the massive chakra boost is yet to be seen. One thing technique that Gaara would definitely lose is the sand's automatic defence. Unlike his sand control, which can be argued to require chakra alone, regardless of the source within Gaara, the defence sand moved without his conscious thought, and will protect him against his will. We can therefore deduce that it's not under his control, and losing the bijuu will also result in a loss of that technique. Not sure about the Shukaku absolute defence move, or the Spear of Shukaku move. (Is the spear even in the manga? We saw it in the last filler arc.)

[Kraco]

Well, if one Akatsuki could capture Gaara, and don't forget, Deidera was having trouble NOT killing him, then defeating the rest of the team of Akatsuki without his bijuu would seem very difficult.

Nah. Assassination is far easier than capturing someone alive and largely unharmed (unharmed enough not to be immediately life-threatening). Naruto might have troubles here because he practically never kills anybody, but Gaara is a real ninja who has no such weaknesses of the mind. Also, assassination is far easier than defending a whole city, which is what brought Gaara down. If he remains a ninja of any above average potential after losing the bijuu, he has what it takes to kill Akatsuki one by one.

[Janusz]

That is my point. Naruto's reliance on the Kyuubi was merely to provide the raw chakra he required to perform his high level techniques. Gaara's relationship with Shukaku was way more complex because it was sealed within him before he was even born. My theory is that since then Gaara and Shukaku have spent 15+ years assimilating to each other and acquiring each other's abilities so at this point Gaara should be able to control the sand on his own and simply rely on the Shukaku merely for chakra. If that is the case with Shukaku gone Gaara should still have most of his techniques and only have lost the essential mass of chakra that was the Ichibi which could be compensated by him just training and increasing the amount of chakra his body is able to produce which should be easy since his body will be used to containing more chakra than any human could produce.

AFAIK all we ever saw him do was manipulate sand, and he only got that power because of the Ichibi. Think about it. The sand came to his rescue again and again wether he wanted it to or not. Clearly this shows that the sand manipulating was not his own doing but something he gained from the Ichibi. Noone besides Gaara could even remotely manipulate the elements like him. Yeah they could do techniques using the elements (think 3rd vs. Orochimaru and Kakashi vs. Zabuza) but that was nowhere near Gaara's ability. So I think it's safe to say that that is not something you can just 'learn'. By all rights Gaara should be pretty worthless now.

Nah. Assassination is far easier than capturing someone alive and largely unharmed (unharmed enough not to be immediately life-threatening). Naruto might have troubles here because he practically never kills anybody, but Gaara is a real ninja who has no such weaknesses of the mind. Also, assassination is far easier than defending a whole city, which is what brought Gaara down. If he remains a ninja of any above average potential after losing the bijuu, he has what it takes to kill Akatsuki one by one.

I agree as far as the assassination / defending a city thing goes, but hunting down Akatsuki now is another story. Like I said, Gaara should be stripped of all his powers now.

[Kraco]

Like I said, Gaara should be stripped of all his powers now.

Well, we know nothing at all about Gaara's potential. Even Naruto, if he wasn't so bloody stupid, would still have quite a bit of potential without the beast. His own chakra pool is probably above average and he learns at least some straight-forward techniques fast so he has natural talent. It might take Gaara a few years to reach a suitable level but if he dedicated himself to transforming into an Akatsuki killing machine, he might be able to do it.

[masamuneehs]

i think janus has it right on the head. ALL of Gaara's techniques have been about manipulating sand, which has been implied to be a special trait he recieved because he had the Ichibi Bijuu sealed inside of him. With the bijuu gone, I doubt he'll be able to manipulate sand any more (especially not the high-speed sand or the instant defense that were particularly powerful).

Face it, Gaara without the Bijuu powers probably couldn't beat a decent Genin. We'll see if he retains some sand manipulation abilities, but if not, he's certainly one of the weakest Naruto characters now...

[Buffalobiian]

It's pretty much agreed that the bijuu was required to learn Gaara's sand techniques. Now all we can do is wait and see if extraction of the bijuu will cause him to "unlearn" it.

[DarthEnderX]

Face it, Gaara without the Bijuu powers probably couldn't beat a decent Genin. We'll see if he retains some sand manipulation abilities, but if not, he's certainly one of the weakest Naruto characters now...

Well, that one filler arc with Gaara in it showed that he's pretty decent with weapons. But then, that's filler so it doesn't really count.