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 team-mates.

Background
Hinata is the eldest child of the Hyūga clan's leader, Hiashi Hyūga, and as the first-born, she is also the heir to the clan's main house. When she was young she was kidnapped by a head ninja from Kumogakure. Her father killed the kidnapper to save her, but Kumo demanded compensation 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.

Perhaps because of her position as heir, Hiashi had high expectations for Hinata and subjected her to grueling training. However, Hinata's slow progress and frailty disheartened her father until eventually, he deemed her a lost cause. Instead Hiashi chose to focus and develop Hinata's younger sister, Hanabi Hyūga, who proved much more promising than Hinata. By the time Hinata joined Team 8, Hiashi had completely lost interest in Hinata, leaving her care and protection to Kurenai Yūhi.

Hinata's relationship with her father caused her to lose more faith in herself and she would often spend her time crying alone. It wasn't until she met Naruto Uzumaki that her perception changed drastically. Like the rest of Konoha's youth, she did not know why Naruto was treated as an outcast. However, Hinata found herself able to relate with his desire to be acknowledged and praised. She was amazed that despite Naruto having nothing and no one to rely on, he never gave up in believing he could become something great like Hokage. In the anime, Naruto was at one point shown protecting Hinata from bullies. Despite Naruto not knowing her, Naruto refused to let the kids insult and degrade her. Since they outnumbered him, they beat him up and knocked him out. Shocked by how much Naruto wanted to help and believing that Hinata deserved to be acknowledged too, Hinata was inspired. She ultimately decided to, like Naruto, try her best to become strong and never give up so she could become acknowledged as well. This admiration of him later grew into affection despite warnings from her elders to stay away from Naruto.

Personality
Hinata is timid, soft-spoken, and polite, often using appropriate name suffixes. She is kind, a trait that Neji used to consider 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. Hinata is incredibly empathetic, and, because of her upbringing, is one of the few characters who identifies with Naruto's painful childhood and desire to be acknowledged. Generally, Hinata opts to think carefully before acting, and when she does manage to muster enough self-confidence, she can be surprisingly competent. These episodes of confidence typically occur when around Naruto or for Naruto's benefit. She becomes more open about her opinion as Part I progresses and, by Part II, Hinata is more confident overall and demonstrates a willingness to take decisive action, unlike before.

Hinata has a long-standing admiration, which has now developed into unquestionable love, for Naruto (making her one of the few female characters her age, if not the only one, to have never been attracted to Sasuke Uchiha). Hinata's fondness for Naruto is obvious to almost every character except Naruto, who remains 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 in his presence. Regardless, Naruto expresses genuine concern for her since the two of them actually get along quite well. As the series progresses, Hinata goes to great lengths for Naruto because she fiercely believes in him. Naruto's two-and-a-half-year absence did nothing to diminish her feelings for him, and in fact, she fainted when he first returned. During invasion of Pain, Hinata finally confessed her love to Naruto and was also willing to die to protect him.

Hinata gets along well with her team-mates. Kiba's actions toward her are often motivated by his concern for her, such as when he urged her to forfeit if she was matched against Neji or Gaara during the Chūnin Exams. Shino possesses a 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 Chūnin Exams, Kurenai silently congratulated her student's resolve and perseverance. By the end of Part I, she also fostered better relations with both her cousin, Neji, and her father and began training with the two of them.

Appearance
Hinata has dark blue hair, reminiscent of the color of eggplant, fair skin and lavender-gray tinted white 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. She looks similar to her mother.

In Part I, her hair is in a hime-cut style, with chin-length strands framing her face. She wore a cream colored 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-up sweater with navy pants and black sandals. Although she still wears her forehead protector around her neck, its color has changed from blue to black.

Byakugan
As a member of the Hyūga clan, Hinata possesses the Byakugan, an ocular 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 in one direction, up to 10 kilometers. During the Search for the Bikōchū 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 fashion, Hinata even accurately fired chakra needles at bees. In Part II, during her fight against Guren, 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, which takes advantage of the Byakugan's ability to see opponent's Chakra Pathway System. The Gentle Fist allows her to cause 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 all 361 tenketsu, Hinata can use Gentle Fist 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, being neither as strong or as fast as Neji's.

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, Hinata was capable of dodging almost all attacks, despite Nurari's elastic body. When later fighting Pain, her attacks were strong enough to snap Pain's Chakra Disruption Blades that were restraining Naruto. She also displays the Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists, with which she is able to briefly strike Pain.

Chakra Control
After the Chūnin Exams, Hinata trained to become stronger, developing in a way which took advantage of her excellent chakra control. The results of this training are shown during the anime's Search for the Bikōchū Arc; she is first seen training beside a waterfall, where she forms an orb of water around herself. She is later shown forming chakra needles that she uses to attack a swarm of bees. Finally, toward the conclusion of the arc, Hinata revealed an original technique, Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. With it, she emits streams of chakra from her palms to create extremely sharp blades, which can be used to hit any target in her field of vision. Due to her excellent chakra control and her natural flexibility, Hinata is able to freely manipulate the size and strength of the chakra blades, effectively allowing her to use this technique to attack and defend simultaneously.

By Part II of the anime, Hinata's chakra control has exceeded that most of the other Konoha 11. In the Three-Tails Arc, despite not being a medical-nin, her chakra control was mentioned as being at least on par with one, as she was selected to perform the Four-Corner Sealing Barrier along with Sakura, Ino, and Shizune. Ino, although trained as a medical-nin, had difficulty maintaining and controlling her chakra to sustain the seal, unlike Hinata, who managed with relative ease.

Chūnin Exam Arc
When the Chūnin Exams began, Hinata entered with her team-mates 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 team-mates 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' confrontation with a team of Rain genin. After Gaara killed the Rain genin, they hid 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 having her chakra cut off, she continued to fight. Neji was surprised when she refused to give up, even becoming enraged when she accused him of being the weak one who fights what he is. He charged at her, but the jōnin in attendance restrained him before he could kill 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. She later watches his match with kiba but, 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 gets her medical attention from an ANBU. She is healed, but remains unconscious for the rest of the invasion of Konoha.

Pre-Shippūden filler arcs
In the filler arcs, Hinata received more screentime than many other members of the Konoha 11. In the Search for the Bikōchū Arc, Team 8 and Naruto are sent to capture a bikōchū 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. When they are captured by a group of ninja that could perfectly transform into copies of others, it is up to Hinata to save them and scare them away. She is unable to pursue them because a leg injury, so Naruto and Kiba do so for her. 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 Castle Arc, she helped her team-mates navigate the halls of a strange castle, which was actually a summoned chameleon in disguise, to save a daimyo's wife. 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.

Throughout the filler arcs, and as was seen at the end of the Part I manga, Hinata developed a much better relationship with her father, who encouraged her to do her best after her near-success in the bikōchū mission. 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, 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.

Three-Tails Arc
After some brief Part II appearances, a Kakashi-led Team 8 was given a mission in the anime to investigate one of Orochimaru's bases. Although that may be an opportunity to find Sasuke, Naruto was not allowed to be told about the mission, so Hinata hoped to be able to find Sasuke for him. Hinata used her Byakugan to follow the chakra-trail of a cursed seal recipient to the base. This turned out to be a trap, and the hideout was destroyed soon after they found it. They did not give up and Hinata picked up on another enemy chakra-trail.

When they first encountered Team Guren, Hinata fought Nurari. Nurari was able 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. Soon afterwards they meet Guren, whose crystal disrupted Hinata's vision with too much reflective light. Nevertheless, Hinata was able to defeat one of Guren's clones. The real Guren responded by immobilizing Hinata in crystal and kidnapping her. When Team 8, with the help of Team 7, eventually rescued Hinata, they found that Hinata saved herself from potentially shattering by encasing herself with chakra, demonstrating to the team that pure chakra could not be crystallized.

After Sakura healed Hinata's injuries, Hinata assisted the two Konoha teams during an ambush, using her Byakugan to navigate in an enemy-smokescreen. When the battle was interrupted by a tidal wave, Hinata used her Byakugan to locate the source: the Three-Tailed Giant Turtle. They received instructions from Tsunade to prevent the tailed beast's capture and seal it, and Hinata's precise chakra control caused her to be assigned to the sealing team. Team Guren interrupted the sealing process and they were once again caught in the Three-Tails' tidal wave. They tried to seal it again, but were once again unsuccessful. Those failures caused Tsunade to recall them to Konoha, leaving the ANBU in charge of the sealing instead.

Itachi Pursuit Arc
Team 8 was recruited to help Team 7 find Itachi Uchiha. They splited up to try and find his trail, and Hinata was added to Naruto's group. They were soon confronted by Kabuto Yakushi and Hinata used her Byakugan 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 left after receiving word that Sasuke had killed Itachi, Kakashi instructed Hinata to locate the site of their battle. They tried to reach it before Tobi, but were too late and forced to return home.

Invasion of Pain Arc
When Konoha was destroyed during the Pain's invasion, Hinata was shown to have survived without injury due in part to her bodyguard, Kō Hyūga. As Kō was not so fortunate, Hinata tried to find him medical attention, but he refused as his only concern was her safety. 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. When Naruto asked why she would throw away her life, she responded that it was because she loved him.

In the anime, she was able to remove a few of the Chakra Disruption Blades that were on Naruto and even land a blow against the Deva Path. While he did eventually subdue her with Shinra Tensei, he was puzzled why she was willing to fight despite being weak. Hinata, crawling near Naruto and still attempting to remove the chakra blades from him, replied by echoing Naruto's words: it is her nindō. With that response, the Deva Path stabbed her with one of his chakra blades. Enraged, Naruto 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. When her wounds were healed, Hinata expressed relief over news that Naruto had defeated 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 and the rest of the Konoha 11, minus Team 7, decided that, in light of Sasuke's criminal actions, they should personally eliminate him before he can involve Konoha in a war. After Naruto was informed of their intentions and met with Sasuke, he told them to leave Sasuke to him.

Naruto Shippūden 2: Bonds
After the attack on Konoha by the Land of the Sky, 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 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 team-mates, 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 side 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. In the American 2010 "Good Guys" poll, Hinata finished in third place with 11% of the votes nearly tying for second with Shikamaru's 12%.
 * 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 Bikōchū 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 Chūnin 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.
 * In the seventh Naruto Shippūden opening, Hinata was shown fighting Konan along with Ino and Sakura.
 * Despite not being the heroine of the series, Kishimoto stated that, at the time of the 2010 interview, Hinata would make a better heroine than Sakura.
 * This is further extended in an omake in episode 165 where Sakura accuses Hinata of trying to become the heroine of the series because of her massive popularity, much to her confusion.
 * 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 Neji) "You're wrong, Neji-nii-san. Because I can see...that you are suffering more than me. You are the one who is confused and suffering inside the fate of the head and branch families."
 * (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 Nurari) "Even without vision or smell, you'll never take away my Byakugan!"
 * (To Naruto) "I used to always cry and give up, I made many wrong turns... But you helped me find the right path, Naruto-kun... I always chased after you... I wanted to catch up to you... I wanted to walk beside you all the time... I just wanted to be with you... You changed me! Your smile is what saved me! That is why I'm not afraid to die protecting you! Because... I love you, Naruto-kun..."