Hinata Hyūga

is a member of the Hyuga Clan. She 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 has had a long standing crush on Naruto, and is the only rookie without a crush on Sasuke. Despite this, Naruto has always been oblivious to her affection, and due to her timidness, he finds it hard to be with her at times, but still claims that she likes Hinata (not the way she loves him). 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. After this and for the rest of Part I, she begins strengthening herself as a ninja and as a person, and impresses Naruto at the very same time, speaking her mind more and training much harder than usual. In Part II, she evolves to the rank of Chunnin, indicating how hard she has been training. She also stutters less when she speaks, showing how much more confidence she has gained in herself. Despite this, her feelings for Naruto have blossomed over the timeskip, as she is unable to bring herself to greet him when he returns, and passes out when he goes to greet her. Despite this, her confidence and strength have caused Naruto to view the true side of her, and he now views her in a higher regard.

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, but instead has one on the totally oblivious Naruto.

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 her 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, Shino Aburame, 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, while at the same time giving some to her teamate Kiba.

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 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, 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 Might Guy 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
In the first round of the finals, Naruto was set to fight against Neji. He was 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 filler episode, Episode 148 Naruto came across Hinata training naked in a waterfall. Naruto being oblivious, didn't realize that it was her and talked to Kiba about it the next day, embarrassing her greatly. In the Land of Vegetables Arc, she managed to singlehandedly defeat a powerful ninja, although she nearly sacrificed her life in doing so. Over this time, it was shown that she has 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.

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. When she comes to, just as she began to focus Naruto came to her and asked, very vaguely, to come with him on his mission. Hinata interpreted the order wrong, and promptly passes out again.

Hunt for Uchiha
After Team 10 delt with Hidan and Kakuzu, Kakashi assembled Team Kurenai to join Team Yamato, to form the 8-Man Squad. Hinata 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. Later when the Squad regroups, they come across Tobi, who appears to be blocking their path to Sasuke.

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 flexibility 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."
 * "I want to change myself, into. . . into something better."
 * "Defend yourself! My brother!"
 * "Naruto, d-do your best."
 * "When I watch you, I feel strong, like I can do anything, that even I am worth something"

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).