Did sasuke have to touch the sky before he used kirin? No. So why can't gaara use sand without touching the ground? After all he was far up in the sky against deidara and he brought up a huge amount of sand in that fight, unless you have proof that he went down to touch the ground.
Against kimimaro, he used sand tsunami without touching the ground with his hands, although his feet were on the ground, nothing suggests he has to touch the ground to make sand.
Against naruto he was able to make a sand copy of the shukaku's body in nearly an instant in a forest, of course without touching the ground and without availability of loose sand in the vicinity.
Temari also said gaara has the ability to control sand in the air and on the ground and we know that there is no time that there is no dust in the air. Gaara also conjured sand in the air to stop the fight between 2 shinobi when he was giving the speech just before the war and I did not see him touching the sand to make it move(also notice that he gourd was closed).
Are you serious about the finger genjutsu? We all know that Itachi is a liar as stated by kabuto. I such a genjutsu exists, he could have put kabuto under it without using izanami.
Sasuke's chakra was mixed with that. Moot point.
Yeah I know, I said he clapped his hands.
You're misunderstanding; reread. I even gave a page where he's obviously not touching the ground to use sand. But to create a large quantity, he OBVIOUSLY has to touch the ground when it's hard or clap his hands (to produce large waves of sand). This is shown in part one and part two. He also has to touch the ground to harden the sand gathered from sand tsunami (manga proof). The point I'm arguing is that to use sand waves effectively (hardening it, then recreating it, etc) on the same scale of sand tsunami or larger, he's going to have to remain on the ground. Then again, using large waves also tire him. As in that battle with Deidara. So using large sand waves do come at a cost.
On Naruto Wiki:
"From the Sand Gaara carries in his gourd, he grinds the rock and minerals from underground into a large area of sand"
Yeah yeah, I know it's Naruto Wiki. But seeing as its reference is the databook [
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], it further strengthens my argument, together with all the pages I provided, of why it's highly unlikely and illogical that his first move would be to take flight; or battle from the air.
Yes I'm serious. If Itachi used that same genjutsu against Kabuto; it most likely wouldn't have worked. Theoretically, all he has to do is to continue absorbing natural energy. Izanami is miles above that genjutsu. The only way out is acceptance. Also, Itachi had a specific goal for his genjutsu, he couldn't risk the possibility of Kabuto recognizing it and escaping via genjuitsu kai. He planned to use a powerful genjutsu from the start, his first plan was Tsukuyomi (even before Kabuto revealed his 'immunity' to genjutsu). So that's not really a good point.
I would like to say something about the susano underestimation. Susano is actually a strong defense but gaara's own offense is actually overlooked and always underrated. Examples of gaara's attacks are:
-Desert requiem: This jutsu actually made the ground to quake, now that is just pure power, the only other jutsus that have been shown to make the earth quake are madara's meteors and tbbs.
-Sand tsunami: Now this jutsu is so underrated. Have you ever seen the effect of a tsunami in real life? Now imagine that tsunami using a heavier and denser material. This is so heavy and with the momentum it packs and the height it gains, it will really cause damage to susano, although people even go to the extent of saying sasuke can go through it with a chidori, just to show how much it is underrated.
-Sand funeral: This jutsu crushes an opponent into pure blood, even kimimaro had to up his defense albeit his already great defense. Now this jutsu if used with a large amount of sand like say a pyramid, the effect would be devastating even for susano.
Now all these jutsu above are used with sand only but Gaara has the ability to add to the mixture THE HARDEST MINERALS in the earth(such as DIAMONDS, IRON, and others). We know that gaara can manipulate sand as he wills, so why can't he use super hardened sand spike to pierce susano?
Some people may underrate gaara's attacks(most of which were shown against kimimaro) because they seemingly had no effect against kimimaro whose defense is thought by people to be weaker that any form of susano, which is a lie. Kimimaro's bones are super hard and he even powered it even more with the curse mark which is sage mode as we know now. Albeit the super strength of his bones, which were even hyped by orochimaro, when he used the strongest one against gaara's defense it literally shattered, which brings me to also how gaara's defense is so underrated.
I would like you guys to ponder about this and get back to me.
There's nothing really to ponder about. The majority of your attacks rely on Gaara catching him. Sand isn't doing anything to Susano'o. Gaara proved this with his statement and strategy [
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]. Gaara's sand isn't breaking through Susano'o, "external attacks won't work". Another thing, what people often overlook is his statement before that [
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]. "The sand is now lighter, then that means...". <---what does lighter sand entail? Faster and easier to control. Before that, he didn't even attempt such a maneuver. Why we ask? Because Madara could have simply dodged the sand coming up from his feet. So the purpose of lightening the sand was to quickly grapple
Susano'o (as shown in the page), keeping it from moving so he can yank him out. The pages happen in the following order: [
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] - [
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]. That only happened because of the sheer speed and control he had over his lightened sand. Madara's reaction time didn't even allow him the chance to attempt to break free. Again, he didn't attempt it until his sand was lightened. His words
proves this. This time, Gaara won't have Onoki with him. And the sand from the ground is even slower, and less powerful. And as I stated near the ending of my first lengthy counter, Susano'o users are capable of shielding underneath. Gaara didn't attempt any external attacks because he knew it would be useless, further proving he wouldn't take to the skies and try to destroy it externally. Remember, he knows nothing about Itachi's sickness or chakra reserves. He does however know that external attacks are useless (stated by him). So I don't see him wasting chakra on such gambles.
Anyways, Gaara isn't getting pass the start of the battle.