Hinata Hyūga

Hinata Hyuga is a secondary character in Naruto who is on Team 8 with Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame, under the leadership of Kurenai Yuhi.

Personality
Hinata is generally soft-spoken and polite, applying appropriate name suffixes to most people. She is notably kind, being unwilling to watch people get hurt in front of her, a trait that Neji considers a flaw. Hinata is able to understand people easily, and is one of the few people who understands how painful Naruto's childhood was. She generally thinks carefully before acting, allowing her to easily survive dangerous situations.

Hinata gets along well with her teammates. Kiba's actions toward her are often motivated by concern for her, as seen when he urges her to forfeit if she is matched against Neji. Shino often indicates that he believes in Hinata, and makes a point of telling it to others when they doubt or worry about her. Hinata is also the closest to Team 8's sensei, Kurenai Yuhi, who is especially invested in Hinata's growth as a ninja and as a person. Kurenai noted that Hinata had changed in her battle with Neji. After Hinata was knocked down for the last time, Kurenai, despite appearing sad over how much Hinata suffered, silently congratulated her student for changing herself.

Background
At the start of the story, she is a shy girl, who is the heiress of the Hyuga Clan. She is one of the rare female characters who didn't have a crush on Sasuke Uchiha, instead her crush, and perhaps eventual love is Naruto Uzumaki.

Her father saw her as weaker than her sister, Hanabi Hyuga, and when she was assigned to Kurenai Yuhi, told her that he was unconcerned that she might die on a mission, saying that her sister was more valuable than she was. Although she trained harder than her teammates, she gave up and thought herself as useless, leading to many failures on missions.

Chunin Exams
When the Chunin Exams came, she entered with the teammates in an attempt to change herself. During the first test, when Naruto was struggling to complete the written exam, she offered to let him cheat off her. However, after seeing the penalty for cheating on a student just behind them, he refused so she wouldn't get in trouble. His inspiring speech at the end of the first test gave her the confidence to not give up, so Ibiki 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, Aburame Shino, and Kiba Inuzuka, 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, Kankuro, and Temari 'fight' a Rain Genin team. The slaughter that Gaara created made them hide behind the bush, hoping not to be caught and killed.

Then in the preliminaries, she witnessed the battle between her teammate Kiba and her crush Naruto, and was divided on who to cheer. Ultimately, she cheered Naruto on and gave Naruto some of her homemade healing cream to heal his wounds after the fight.

In the eighth round, she had to face her much stronger cousin, Neji Hyuga in combat. She almost broke down and gave up after Neji berated her on being a failure who can 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, refused to stay down, and became 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 Jonin Kurenai, Kakashi Hatake, and Neji's sensei Maito Gai 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.

After Chunin Exams
Naruto and Neji were pitted against each other in the first round of the finals. He was extremely rattled and nervous the day of the fight, and began to doubt himself. He went to one of his old training areas, and 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, timid girl...but you know, I think I like people like you.' She was speechless and watched him go before leaving to watch the match with Kiba.

After that, she managed to watch half way through Naruto's battle with her cousin. Shortly after Naruto managed to get up after nearly being defeated, she began coughing up blood and had to be excused. Naruto's anger over Neji's cruel treatment of her and his awe over her determination motivated him to continue, and he ultimately defeated Neji and helped to change his worldview.

In the filler arcs, Hinata receives more screentime than many other members of the Konoha 11. As a result of training ever since Tsunade's return to the village, she discovers a technique known as Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, and manages to save Naruto and the rest of Team 8 by using it against hostile bug users. In the Land of Vegetables Arc, she manages to singlehandedly defeat a powerful ninja, although she nearly sacrifices her life in doing so. Over this time, it is shown that she has a much better relationship with her father, who, after her near-success in the Bikochu mission, encourages her to do her best. Neji also gets along well with her, sparring with her and caring about her well-being.

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

Part II
In Part II, she has attained the rank of Chunin and is still part of Team 8. When Naruto greets her, she passes out, overcome by the prospect of seeing him for the first time in three years.

In the current arc, she is teamed up with Naruto and Yamato to find Itachi Uchiha. With her Byakugan, she is able to spot that one third of Kabuto has been taken over by Orochimaru's remains.

Abilities
As a member of the Hyuga clan, Hinata possesses the Byakugan, which gives her a near 360° field of vision, albeit a blind spot around the back of her neck. During the Chunin Exams, she displays the ability to focus the Byakugan's sight, increasing the distance that her eyes can see. She also specializes in the Gentle Fist fighting style, which allows her to damage her opponent's chakra circulatory system and inner organs directly with even a slight tap. Despite all these abilities, she has been considered by Neji and even her father too weak to lead the clan.

After her fight with Neji, Hinata takes her quest to get stronger to new levels. She used training that consists of manipulating water to sprout in an orb around her. This training manifests itself during the Bikochu filler arc in the form of, a combination of the Hyuga clan's most powerful techniques, the Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin, and the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. With it Hinata emits streams of chakra from her palms to create extremely sharp blades that 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 flexability as well as her ability to manipulate their size, Hinata can use this to technique to attack and defend simultaneously. Over the timeskip she rises to the rank of Chunin, indicating that her training has been effective in making her stronger.

Quotes

 * "I want to be strong"

Trivia

 * Hinata is very popular in Naruto fandom, frequently making in into top 10 favourite characters (she was placed 10th in the first Naruto manga anniversary poll, 6th in the second and third polls, and 9th in the fifth poll).