Hinata Hyūga

is one of the main supporting characters of the series. She is a Chūnin-level kunoichi of Konohagakure, and is the heir to the main branch in the Hyūga clan. She is a member of Team Kurenai, with Shino Aburame and Kiba Inuzuka as her teammates.

Background
Hinata is the eldest child of the Hyūga clan's leader, Hiashi Hyūga, and as the first-born child, she is also the heir to the clan's main house. Perhaps because of this future responsibility, Hinata was slave to high expectations since birth and put through grueling training by her father. However, Hinata's slow progress and frailty disheartened her father and eventually, he deemed her a lost cause, instead choosing to focus and develop Hinata's younger sister, Hanabi Hyūga, who proved much more promising than Hinata.

At one point during Hinata's childhood, she was kidnapped by a head ninja from the Land of Lightning. Her father killed the kidnapper to save her, but the Land of Lightning demanded recompense in the form of Hiashi's life. This ultimately resulted in the death of Hinata's uncle, Hizashi Hyūga, who sacrificed himself in his twin brother's stead. This incident was particularly significant in shaping Hinata's early relationship with her cousin, Neji Hyūga.

When Hinata was assigned to Team 8, Hiashi expressed to Kurenai Yūhi his distaste for his daughter, remarking that he did not care that his daughter might die on a mission, and that he had no use for a weak heir. Hiashi then left Hinata in Kurenai's care.

Personality
Hinata is timid, soft-spoken, and polite, often using appropriate name suffixes. She is kind, a trait that Neji considers a flaw, and dislikes competing and fighting. Possibly as a result of her father's contempt for her, Hinata lacks self-confidence, and despite her hard work and good intentions, she often makes mistakes on missions. Generally, Hinata opts to think carefully before acting, and when she does manage to muster enough self-confidence, she can be surprisingly competent.

Hinata has a long-standing admiration, which has now developed into unquestionable love, for Naruto Uzumaki (making her one of the few female characters her age, if not the only one, to be impervious to the charm of Sasuke Uchiha). Hinata's overflowing fondness for Naruto is painfully obvious to almost every character, save Naruto, who has somehow managed to be oblivious to her feelings. In fact, he finds it awkward to be with her at times since Hinata's adoration for Naruto is such that she becomes unable to properly articulate herself. Regardless, Naruto expresses genuine concern for her since the two of them actually get along rather well the more they interact with each other. As the series progresses, Hinata goes to great lengths for Naruto because she fiercely believes in him and truly wishes to help him achieve his goals of retrieving Sasuke and becoming Hokage.

Hinata gets along well with her teammates. Kiba's actions toward her are often motivated by his concern for her, such as when he urged her to forfeit if she is matched against Neji or Gaara during the Chunin exams. Shino possesses this quiet confidence in Hinata, and will make a point of assuring others when they doubt or worry about her. Hinata is also the closest to Team 8's sensei, Kurenai, who is not only interested in Hinata's growth as a ninja but also as a person. She knows Hinata's personal struggles and unlike her demanding father, Kurenai tries her best to coach Hinata in ways in which she knows her pupil will best respond. After Hinata was knocked down for the final time by Neji in the Chunin exams, Kurenai silently congratulated her student's resolve and perseverance. Post-Chunin Exams arc and for the rest of Part I, Hinata becomes a little more open and self-assured. She fosters better relations with her cousin, Neji, and begins training with him, all the while starting to be more honest about her true feelings both about Naruto and in general.

In Part II, Hinata's severe anxiety around Naruto has remained the same over the time-skip as she is unable to bring herself to greet him and ends up fainting when he first returns. However, she appears to be more confident overall and demonstrates a willingness to take decisive action, unlike before. During Pain's invasion, Hinata finally confessed her love to Naruto. Though it is unknown what his reaction is, he was initially greatly shocked about her feelings.

Appearance
Hinata has dark blue hair, reminiscent of the colour of eggplant, fair skin and lavender-gray eyes. She is usually seen with a timid and shy expression in Part I, but less so in Part II, with the exception of when she is around Naruto. Like the rest of her clan, she possesses the renowned Byakugan which when activated, stimulates the veins and arteries immediately around her eyes to protrude much more prominently.

In Part I, her hair is in a hime-cut style, with chin-length strands framing her face. She wore a cream coloured hooded-jacket with a fire symbol on the upper right and left sleeves, and navy blue pants. After earning her Genin rank, she wore her Konoha forehead protector around her neck. In Part II, Hinata becomes a Chūnin, and she lets her hair grow to waist-length, with straight-cut bangs that conceal her forehead. The chin-length strands that frame her face still remain, but are less obvious due to her longer hairstyle. Her outfit comprises of a white and lavender zip-sweater with navy pants and black sandals. Although she still wears her forehead protector around her neck, it has changed from blue to black.

Byakugan
As a member of the Hyūga clan, Hinata possesses the Byakugan, an occular Kekkei Genkai which grants her x-ray vision, nearly 360° vision (the Byakugan has a small blind spot at the nape of the neck), and the ability to see chakra networks. Hinata can focus her Byakugan's sight to drastically increase its range one direction, far outstripping Neji's visual range while doing so. In Part II, she was able to see 10km away, where Neji's known range is at least 1300m. During the Hunt for the Bikochu arc, she was able to use her Byakugan to magnify and zoom, effectively seeing every small insect in the area. Using her Byakugan in a similar fasion, Hinata even accurately fired chakra needles at bees. In Part II during her fight against Guren in the Three-tails arc, Hinata demonstrates her mastery of her Kekkei Genkai. Hinata's Byakugan was at first overcome by Guren's crystal labyrinth, which refracted light to produce many duplicate images for Hinata. However, forcing herself to focus on her target allowed the Byakugan to function just enough for her to accurately see Guren's real chakra network and not the reflections'.

Taijutsu
Like others in the Hyūga Clan, Hinata specializes in Gentle Fist or Jūken, which takes advantage of the Byakugan's insight into people's Chakra Pathway System. Jūken allows for severe internal trauma with minimal external force as it relies on surgical injection of chakra into an opponent's chakra network nodes, or Tenketsu. As the Byakugan can see the 361 tenketsu of the Chakra Pathway System, Hinata can use Jūken to not only damage opponents, but control their chakra flow as well.

However, when Hinata is first introduced, she is considered weak by the Hyūga's standards. Compared with her cousin Neji, Hinata's Gentle Fist was neither as strong nor as swift. After the Chunin Exams, Hinata took to becoming stronger, training in a way which took advantage of her excellent Jūken-honed chakra control. This training manifested itself during the anime's Bikochu arc, where she showed her self-made technique Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. With it, Hinata emits streams of chakra from her palms to create extremely sharp blades, which she can use to hit any target in her field of vision. Due to the speed at which these blades move, the amount of control she has over them, her natural flexibility, and her ability to manipulate their size and strength, Hinata can use this technique to attack and defend simultaneously.

Hinata displays a number of new abilities in Part II and appears more formidable in combat. In the anime's Three-tails arc, Hinata performed a minor version of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms called Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms, which she had been working on during the timeskip. Hinata has also continued to develop her natural flexibility. While battling Nurari in the Three-tails arc, Hinata was capable of dodging almost all attacks, even though Nurari had an elastic body. When fighting Pain, she was able to force him back and was about to use a new attack, called the Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists, but was defeated before she was able to complete the attack.

Chūnin Exam arc
When the Chūnin Exams began, Hinata entered with her teammates in an attempt to change herself. During the first test, she was seated next to Naruto, and when Naruto was struggling to complete the written exam, she offered to let him cheat off her test. However, after seeing the penalty for cheating on a student just behind them, he refused so she wouldn't get in trouble, and because he was too proud to cheat. His inspiring speech at the end of the first test gave her the confidence to not give up, so Ibiki Morino passed everyone in the group who didn't refuse to take the tenth question.

In the second part of the exam, during the Forest of Death, she and her teammates quickly managed to get their scroll, becoming one of the first Genin teams to do so in that exam. When Kiba and Akamaru smelled a second target, they witnessed the Sand Siblings, Gaara, Kankurō, and Temari's confrontation with a team of Rain Genin. Gaara's brutal killings made them hide behind a bush, hoping not to be caught and killed.

In the preliminaries, Hinata had to face her much stronger cousin, Neji, in combat. She almost broke down and gave up after Neji berated her on being a failure who could never change. This made Naruto angry, and he cheered Hinata on, giving her the strength to fight her cousin. Despite being outmatched, and being rendered unable to send chakra into Neji's system, she continued to fight against Neji. He was surprised when she refused to give up and refused to stay down, becoming enraged when, for the first time, she was able to see through him, to see that he was fighting his destiny. He charged at her, but the Jōnin in attendance restrained him before he could land a blow that would have killed her. When Hinata was taken away to the emergency room, Naruto dipped his fingers in her blood and vowed to defeat Neji.

A month later, Naruto, concerned that he would be unable to defeat Neji despite his vow, ran into Hinata. When he began to doubt himself, she told him that he never gave up, which was something she admired, and that she had become more confident after he cheered for her. This gave Naruto the strength and drive to go face Neji, and as he left, he told Hinata she was "a dark and timid girl" and said that he liked people like her. Hinata was speechless, and watched him go before leaving to watch the match with Kiba. Due to the injuries she received from Neji not being fully healed, Hinata passed out during the match, and did not see its ending. Kiba took her with an ANBU that healed her, that ultimately turns out to be Kabuto and knocked out Kiba.

Pre-Shippūden filler arcs
In the filler arcs, Hinata received more screentime than many other members of the Konoha 11. In the Bikochu arc, Team 8 and Naruto were sent to capture a Bikochu beetle that could track Sasuke Uchiha's scent - a mission that Hinata had insisted on. During the mission she develops her Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, and managed to save Naruto and the rest of Team 8 by using it against hostile bug-users. During the episode, Naruto came across a naked Hinata's silhouette, training in a waterfall at night. Naruto, being oblivious, didn't realize that it was her, and talked to Kiba about how he saw a "beautiful girl" at the waterfall the next day, embarrassing her greatly.

In the Bounty Hunter arc, she accompanied Naruto and Kiba to catch a thief, but because someone else caught him (albeit with their help), the mission was considered a failure.

As a result of these two failures, Hinata, Naruto, and Kiba were threatened with being returned to the academy if they did not succeed in finding hidden treasure. The group initially had difficulty working together, due to friction between Naruto and Kiba, and Hinata worrying about them. In this arc, Naruto and Kiba constantly chose different routes to the cave holding the hidden treasure. A group of ninja, who could perfectly transform into copies of others, ambushed and kidnapped them. Their kidnappers left them to die in a cave-in, but Hinata saved them with her Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. She was unable to pursue the impostors into town because of an earlier leg injury, so Naruto and Kiba did so. Hinata later returned, and mistakenly attacked Naruto after he absent-mindedly put down the chest, which had distinguished him from the impostor.

In the Land of Vegetables arc, she managed to defeat a powerful ninja, Jiga, although she nearly sacrificed her life in doing so. In the Cursed Haunted Castle arc, she helped her teammates navigate the halls of a strange castle, which was actually a summoned chameleon in disguise, to save a daimyo's wife. Over this time, it was shown that she had a much better relationship with her father, who after her near-success in the Bikochu mission, encouraged her to do her best. Neji also got along well with her, sparring with her and caring about her well-being.

In "Follow My Lead! The Great Survival Challenge", the Academy Students were divided into teams of three and were assigned to a genin who would lead them on a mission against the other teams. Hinata was assigned to lead a team of three academy students; Nobori, Daichi and Matsuri. Her time with them was not covered much except that she was good at setting up camp and was doing better than Naruto.

When Naruto left to train with Jiraiya at the end of the series, she watched him leave, but was unable to bring herself to say goodbye to him. As he left, she vowed to become stronger, and to work as hard as he did.

Sai & Sasuke arc
In Part II, she had attained the rank of Chūnin, and was still part of Team 8, renamed Team Kurenai. When Naruto greeted her, she passed out, overcome by the prospect of seeing him for the first time in two and a half years. When she came to, just as she began to focus, Naruto came to her and asked, very vaguely, to come with him on his mission, telling her "shut up and come with me". Hinata misinterpreted the words and promptly passed out again. After this, Hinata asked Kiba if she seemed more grown-up, in the hopes of impressing Naruto. Kiba jokingly teased her, by saying she was still as silly as ever, and then told her that Naruto was behind her, surprising and upsetting her.

Hidan and Kakuzu arc
In the anime, she can be seen at Asuma's funeral. Later, she can be seen by a river with her teammates, she's overjoyed to hear that Naruto is working so hard to hone his new jutsu. She is then reprimanded by Kiba who teases her about why she's blushing, causing her to back away with embarrassment.

Three-Tailed Beast arc
In the anime, when Tsunade learned of Orochimaru's current whereabouts, Tsunade called for Team 8 for their tracking and information-gathering skills. As they left (under Kakashi, who was filling in for Kurenai), Hinata wondered if Sasuke was there, and, after hearing that he was, asked if Naruto knew, too, but Shino told her that, if he did, Naruto would be unable to contain himself.

During the search, Hinata hoped to succeed in the mission, to make Naruto acknowledge her again. Her Byakugan then detected unusual chakra, and discovered it belonged to one of Orochimaru's test subjects for the Cursed Seal. Through the man's chakra trail, Hinata led her team to Orochimaru's hideout, only to barely escape from it after a trap was sprung, thus destroying the hideout. While searching for survivors, they found several men imprisoned in crystal, before they disintegrated. While Kakashi had Pakkun deliver one of Shino's crystal-encased bugs to Tsunade for analysis, the team continued looking for the enemy. Eventually, Hinata's Byakugan detected the enemies' chakra.

Immediately, Hinata and her team became at a disadvantage through use of a smokescreen. Hinata, however, was able to negate this by using her Byakugan. She ended up facing Nurari, a man with the ability to shift his body to the point of repositioning his organs to avoid damage, effectively making Hinata's Gentle Fist useless. In the end, she was saved by Shino and his insects. She was injured, but said she was still able to move.

When the teams later met Guren, Hinata found out that her Byakugan was being disrupted by Guren's crystal barrier, as it produced too much reflective light. Despite the technique heavily interfering with her Byakugan, causing her vision to constantly focus upon herself instead of her target, Hinata proved able to defeat one of Guren's clones, but then the real Guren appeared and crystallized Hinata, rendering her completely immobile.

After Hinata was saved from Guren, everyone was shocked to see that she remained unharmed after the crystal shattered, unlike previous victims. Hinata revealed that she encased herself in a coat of chakra before the crystal surrounded her, allowing the team to realize that the crystal jutsu couldn't crystallize raw chakra. After being healed by Sakura, Hinata joined up with her team again in time to save them from the enemies' smokescreen ambush with her Byakugan. Unfortunately, the enemies escaped again, after the appearance of a huge tidal wave. She then used her Byakugan to discover that something with powerful chakra was responsible for creating it.

Later, Hinata and her team were joined by back-up from Konoha, holding orders directly from Tsunade to seal the newly emerged Three-Tails. While not having high expertise in ninjutsu, Hinata was placed on the sealing team because of her great chakra control due to her Gentle Fist training, with further assistance from her Byakugan. Unfortunately, the enemies were able to intervene and stop the sealing process, enabling the Three-Tails to break free of the barrier. Hinata was blown away by the ensuing tidal wave, but Lee and Tenten helped get her and the rest of the sealing team to safety.

After recovering, Hinata was put into a search party for a missing Naruto, to which Hinata showed much desire in succeeding at. After learning that Naruto was trapped inside the Three-Tails, Hinata was again put on a team assigned with the job of sealing the Three-Tails. Unfortunately, the second effort failed, when Yūkimaru's power activated in his grief, breaking the sealing jutsu. Hinata and the other members of the sealing team were washed away in the tidal wave. She regrouped with the rest of the team, and used her Byakugan to notice that Yūkimaru's chakra network had been damaged by overuse of his technique. She returned to Konoha with the rest of the team and replaced by members of the ANBU.

Hunt for Itachi arc
Team 8 was recruited to help Team Kakashi find Itachi Uchiha. With her Byakugan, Hinata was able to see that one-third of Kabuto had been taken over by Orochimaru's remains. Later, when the squad regrouped, they came across Tobi, who appeared to be blocking their path to Sasuke. During the battle that followed, Hinata took the role of stationary scout, using her Byakugan to follow Tobi's chakra signal. When Tobi and Zetsu left for the location of Sasuke's fight with Itachi, Hinata was asked by Kakashi about what she saw; she said she saw black flames. Kakashi recognized the description as the Amaterasu flames, and he started leading the group to the hideout. Unfortunately, her team arrived too late, due to Zetsu and Tobi's inhumanly fast movement. Tobi had already taken Sasuke away, leaving no trace for the team to track.

Invasion of Pain arc
Hinata survived Pain's destruction of Konoha. She showed concern for an injured branch house member named Kō Hyūga, stating that his wounds needed to be healed, but Kō explained to her that he would never be able to forgive himself if anything happened to her. Once realizing that Naruto was fighting Pain all by himself, she attempted to run to his side, but was stopped by Kō, who warned her she'd only be a burden. Just as she seemingly accepted Kō's words, Naruto was pinned down by Pain. She decided to intervene, despite knowing she did not have the ability to defeat him. With her decision to fight made, she declared her love to Naruto, and proclaimed her willingness to die for him as she launched her assault. However, just as she had foreseen, Pain easily tossed her aside with the aid of Shinra Tensei, and stabbed her with one of his chakra blades. Naruto then slipped into his six-tailed form, while a barely conscious Hinata looked on.

As the battle between Naruto and Pain raged on, Team Guy arrived at Hinata's side, and rushed her away from the battlefield and to Sakura's side. With her wounds healed, a thankful Hinata expressed relief toward Naruto's defeat of Pain. When Naruto came back to the village, she shed tears of joy, and was seen later on smiling as the villagers celebrated Naruto's victory.

Five Kage Summit arc
Hinata was present with the other members of the Konoha 11, minus Team Kakashi. Since Sasuke was causing international events that could lead to war, Konoha 11 were deciding on next course of action towards him.

Fourth Shinobi World War arc
Hinata was later seen with the rest of the Konoha 11, hearing Naruto's decision about Sasuke.

Naruto Shippūden the Movie 2: Bonds
After the attack on Konoha by the Sky Country, Naruto was assigned to escort a young girl, Amaru, (whom he had mistaken for a boy) and her sensei, Shinnō, back to their village, with Sakura and Hinata completing the three-man team. Upon arriving, they discovered it to have been attacked as well. A distraught Amaru recklessly ran into the village, accidentally setting off a trap hidden by the enemy. In the aftermath of the trap, Shinnō was tragically wounded in his successful attempt to save Amaru, and after a few weakened words, it was made apparent through Hinata's Byakugan that he was dying, and eventually appeared to succumb to his wounds.

Shortly afterward, the three split up to investigate the area. Hinata was kidnapped by Shinnō, who had merely faked his death, and was held prisoner, along with the rest of Amaru's villagers. Thanks to the aid of Amaru, they were able to escape the prison, and eventually the flying island itself, riding aboard a flying boat of sorts down to the ground below. Hinata then became happy as Amaru saved Naruto from falling to his death.

Naruto Shippūden Movie 3: Inheritors of the Will of Fire
Hinata was first seen when they celebrated for Naruto and Sai's recovery and ate barbecue, where she explained that she was told by Naruto to invite everyone.

Later, Hinata was sent with the rest of Konoha 11 to retrieve back Naruto and Sakura. Hinata's team caught up with Naruto and Sakura, with the rest of Konoha 11. Hinata and the others was caught by one of Hiruko's henchmen Ichi, and was freed by Tenten. Team Guy was left behind to take down the first of Hiruko's henchmen.

Hinata's team fought the second of Hiruko's henchmen, Ni and her chimera nin-dogs, Shino took down Ni's chimera nin-dogs, Ni became angry and used a Chimera Technique fusing herself with a large beast, while Kiba, Hinata, and Akamaru delayed her before Shino built a large pit trap, Hinata then saved Akamaru from Ni's whip. After being teased by Kiba, Ni fell into Shino's trap and was destroyed by Shino's Secret Technique: Insect Sphere. After Team 10 failed to defeat the last of Hiruko's henchmen, San then summoned his two teammates, Ichi and Ni, and used Chimera Technique, which made them turn into a massive flying beast. Hinata and the rest of Konoha 11 then arrives to back up Team 10, Shikamaru told Tenten to chain the beast wings to restrict its flight, while all of the Konoha 11, excepting Shikamaru constricted the beast by holding the chains, Hinata with the help of Neji used their Gentle Fist, through the chains destroying the beast, before it was summoned by Hiruko.

Hinata is later seen at Hiruko's temple, being one of the elite few of Konoha 11, that could of helped destroy the Chimera that was, summoned by Hiruko earlier. Falling from the sky, Hinata and Neji appeared and attacked the beast each using Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.

Hinata made her last appearance along with the rest of Konoha 11, overhearing Kakashi and Naruto's weird conversation and stating the she never knew Kakashi had such preferences, along with Sai and Lee, deeply embarrassing him.

Trivia

 * Hinata's name means "sunny place". It can be written with the exact same kanji as her last name,.
 * Despite Hinata's lack of panel time compared to some of the other Konoha 11, Hinata is popular in Naruto character popularity polls, frequently making it into the top 10 favorite characters. She was placed 10th in the first, 6th in the second and third, 12th in the fourth, 9th in the fifth, and 13th in the sixth. She finished 11th in the seventh and most recent, with 6,917 votes. In the American 2010 "Good Guys" poll, Hinata finished in third place with 11% of the votes.
 * Hinata is a playable character in most Naruto video games. In later installments of the Clash of Ninja series, she is also playable in an "awakened" form. In this form, her clothes are similar to what she wore during the Search for the Bikochu arc, though the form itself is not based on the events of that arc. Awakened Hinata has a personality similar to Neji's during the Chunin Exams, arrogantly challenging opponents and boasting about the power of the main branch of the Hyūga clan. She is also able to use jutsu such as Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms in this form. In Naruto Shippūden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3, Awakened Hinata can be used in the middle of battle by activating her Byakugan. In previous games, Awakened Hinata had to be specifically chosen during character selection.
 * During the Invasion of Pain arc, she first attacked Pain with only one Byakugan activated, something unseen by other Byakugan users, not counting Ao, who only has a single Byakugan eye to begin with.
 * In the seventh Naruto: Shippūden opening, Hinata is shown fighting Konan along with Ino and Sakura, though in the manga, they do not fight.
 * Despite not being the heroine of the series Kishimoto stated himself during the 2010 interview that Hinata would make a better heroine than Sakura at the moment, however this is mainly due to the fact that he has a hard time making good roles for female characters like Sakura but also stated that Sakura would play a more heroine role in the future
 * According to the Naruto databook:
 * Hinata's hobby is pressing flowers.
 * Hinata wishes for a rematch with her cousin Neji, and for a match with her father, Hiashi.
 * Hinata's favorite foods are zenzai and cinnamon rolls, whilst her least favorite foods are dishes such as crabs and shrimp.
 * Hinata has completed 33 official missions in total: 10 D-rank, 14 C-rank, 8 B-rank, 1 A-rank, 0 S-rank.
 * Hinata's favorite word is.

Quotes

 * (To Neji) "I will never go back on my word, because that too is my ninja way!"
 * (To Nurari) "''Even without vision or smell, you'll never take away my Byakugan!
 * (To Naruto) "When I watch you, I feel strong, like I can do anything - that even I am worth something."
 * (To Naruto) "You make mistakes... but... because of those mistakes... you get the strength to stand up to them... that's why I think you are truly strong."
 * (To Naruto) "I used to always cry and give up... I nearly went the wrong way... but you... you showed me the right way... I was always chasing you... wanting to overtake you... I just wanted to walk with you... I wanted to be with you... you changed me! Your smile saved me! So I’m not afraid to die protecting you!! Because I - love you..."