Hyuga Hinata

Hyūga Hinata (日向 ヒナタ,aka Hinata Hyūga in the english version) is a major supporting character of the series. She is a chūnin-level kunoichi of Konohagakure's Hyūga clan and a member of Team Kurenai.

Background
Hinata is the elder child of the Hyūga clan's leader: Hiashi Hyūga, and as the first-born, was the heiress-apparent to the clan's main house. However, she apparently lost this position to her younger sister Hanabi, as Hinata was deemed a failure by their father because of her lack of self confidence.[4 ] When she was young she was kidnapped by a head ninja from Kumogakure, who under the guise of striking a peace treaty with Konoha, had actually been sent there to steal the Byakugan. Her father killed the would-be kidnapper to save her, but Kumo demanded compensation in the form of Hiashi's dead body due to having signed a peace treaty with the village only moments before. This ultimately resulted in the death of Hinata's uncle, Hizashi Hyūga, who sacrificed himself in order to protect his clan and village.[5 ] This incident was particularly significant in shaping Hinata's early relationship with her cousin, Neji Hyūga.

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

Hinata's strained relationship with her father caused her to lose more faith in herself and she would often spend her time alone, crying. It wasn't until she met Naruto Uzumaki that her perception changed drastically. Because Naruto was treated as an outcast by almost everyone in the village, 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, he refused to let the kids insult and degrade her. Since they outnumbered him, they beat him up and knocked him out. Surprised by how much Naruto wanted to help and believing that she too deserved to be acknowledged, Hinata was inspired. Like Naruto, she ultimately decided to try her best to become strong and never give up, so she could become acknowledged as well. This admiration of Naruto later grew into a crush.But her elders warns her to stay away from him.

Personality
Hinata is characterised as shy, thoughtful, serene, kind, and very polite, as noted from her always addressing people with appropriate honorifics. She is also very gentle, a trait that Neji and her father used to consider a flaw, and dislikes competing and fighting. She is shown to be incredibly empathetic, and, because of her upbringing, is one of the very first characters who identifies with Naruto's painful childhood and desire to be acknowledged.[7 ]

Back in her childhood, as a result of her clan's high expectations as their heiress and her father's gruelling training and him deeming her as a failure, Hinata had become very timid and lacked self-confidence. However, she was shown to be a very hard worker (something that her father initially failed to notice), as she continuously strived to change herself for the better, though initially this lack of self-confidence would hinder her on even missions.[8 ] As the series progressed, Hinata became more open about her opinion and confident overall, as she demonstrated a willingness on occasion to take decisive action than ever before. By the time of the Fourth Shinobi World War, her bravery and confidence has extended to the part where she is willing to put her own life on the line for her village, friends, and family. The strongest amount of her new found confidence and bravery was displayed after Neji had died where Hinata was able to pull herself together and even keep Obito Uchiha from getting inside Naruto's head and resolve herself after Neji's death and accept it in the end.

Hinata's growing self-confidence mainly comes from her long-standing admiration for Naruto, as she was inspired by his enthusiasm, optimism, and his unyielding determination to protect his loved ones. As the series progressed, her admiration towards him grew into genuine care and affection, eventually leading her to fall in love with him. Hinata also has a strong faith in Naruto, believing that he will one day achieve his goal to become Hokage. During the invasion of Pain, Hinata finally confessed her love to Naruto and was also willing to protect him, even at the cost of her own life. After Neji was killed by Obito, she pulled herself together despite the pain she was feeling so she could inspire Naruto once more not to give in or give up on himself, reiterating their shared nindō, which showed how far she has come.

Hinata gets along well with her team-mates. Kiba has become one of her closest friends, and his 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. Kiba is also aware of her feelings for Naruto, as he tends to tease her a lot about them by embarrassing her by telling her Naruto is near when he isn't or pointing out when she blushes when thinking about Naruto. 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 her sensei, 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. Like Kiba, Kurenai is aware of her affection to Naruto and encourages her to express herself to him. By the end of Part I, Hinata was able to foster better relations with both Neji and her father and started training with them, as well as growing closer and stronger together as a family.

Appearance
Hinata has dark blue hair (nearly black in the anime) and fair skin; traits that she inherited from her mother. She also has the customary white eyes of her clan, which have a tinge of lavender in the anime. She is usually seen with a timid, 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 short, levelled hime-cut style just above her forehead, 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 fur around the cuffs and hem, with navy blue pants. After earning her genin rank, she wore her Konoha forehead protector around her neck. At the Chūnin Exams finals, Hinata wore a long-sleeved, light blue blouse with a high collar, and dark blue pants. While at home, she was seen in the traditional Hyūga garb, consisting of a simple, loose-fitting robe with different coloured trimmings, and an under-shirt.

In Part II, Hinata has retained her straight, hime-style haircut, but she has let her hair grow to waist-length. The short strands that frame her face remain, but are now shoulder-length. Her figure has also grown to become much more womanly. She also dons a new attire comprised of a loose fitting, long-sleeved, lavender and cream zip-up jacket with lavender cuffs over mesh armour with navy blue pants and black, low-heeled sandals. Although she still wears her forehead protector around her neck, its colour has changed from blue to black. In one of the omakes, she is seen wearing a beige apron and light blue scarf tied in a bandanna style. In another omake, she is seen in a casual outfit that consisted of brown capri pants, brown sandals, and a dark green, hood-less jacket with a fire symbol on the upper-right side of her chest. The cuffs of the jacket were rolled up to the middle of her forearms; the inside of the jacket was shown to be cream-coloured. Hinata had a light lavender blouse underneath.

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, she dons the standard uniform of her village inclusive of flak jacket. Instead of wearing the forehead protector of the Allied Shinobi Forces, she has seemingly opted not to wear one at all.

Ablities
Although she was deemed a failure in Part I by her father, Hiashi, Hinata's new-found resolve enabled her to greatly sharpen her skills, ultimately changing her father's opinion about her and later becoming a chūnin with the help of her team-mates and sensei — under whose guidance Hinata has been able to blossom and develop her abilities.[3 ] During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Hiashi also considered her strong enough to protect her cousin, Neji now as much as he protects her.[12 ] Naruto has also praised her strength, recalling how she fought against Pain when he was incapacitated.[13 ] Like her team-mates, she is a skilled tracker which she uses the extensive sight provided to her by the Byakugan to achieve.

In the anime, Hinata is shown to be able to use medical ninjutsu, witnessed from her use of the Mystical Palm Technique to heal the wounded citizens of the Hachō Village

Byakugan
As a member of the Hyūga clan, Hinata possesses the Byakugan, a dōjutsu kekkei genkai which grants her near 360° vision (with the exception of a small blind spot at the upper thoracic vertebrae), x-ray vision and the ability to see the chakra pathway system. Hinata can focus her Byakugan's sight to drastically increase its range in one direction up to at least 10 kilometres.[15 ] 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, and could also see in infra-red.[16 ] Using her Byakugan in a similar fashion, Hinata even accurately fired chakra needles at fast and tiny targets. In Part II, during her fight against Guren, Hinata demonstrates her new 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 of herself.[17 ] However, Hinata was able to focus on her target and allowed the Byakugan to function enough for her to accurately see Guren's real chakra network and not the reflections.[17 ] It was confirmed by Kakashi that Hinata can use her Byakugan to see through genjutsu, as he requested her to do so when they fought Tobi.[18 ] Using her Byakugan, she could help Ino time and pinpoint her Mind Body Switch Technique on Obito, saving Naruto, Kakashi, Guy, and B from the Ten-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball.

Gentle Fist
As a member of the Hyūga clan, Hinata specialises in close-range, taijutsu combat. Her fighting style is the signature style of her clan, the Gentle Fist, which takes advantage of the Byakugan's ability to see opponent's chakra pathway system. It 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 to cause damage. However, when Hinata is first introduced, she is considered weak by Hiashi Hyūga's standards, being neither as strong nor as fast as Neji or her sister.

During the timeskip, Hinata improved her taijutsu skills immensely and displays now a large variety of her clan's techniques. When later fighting Pain in the anime, her attacks were strong enough to snap Pain's Chakra Disruption Blades that were restraining Naruto and also able to strike Pain.[6 ] In the anime's Three-Tails Arc, Hinata performed the Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms, a minor version of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.[17 ] Hinata has also continued to develop her natural flexibility. This was shown while she was battling Nurari in the anime when she was able to dodge most of his attacks, despite the enemy's elastic body.[20 ] She can also collaborate with Neji, using Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall Palm, which is a variation of the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm both of which creates a huge wave of chakra that is targeted at the opponent's vital points.[21 ] Using her Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm, she was able to react and deflect a few wooden spikes to protect Naruto after he had used up his Sage Mode.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-21">[22 ] Hinata could also use the Gentle Fist to relocate Naruto's dislocated

Hinata has also acquired her own original arsenal. In the anime, she developed the Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, a technique that can take advantage of her great flexibility and coordination to both attack and defend at the same time. She also displays the Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists technique, which much of was not seen in the manga, but in the anime was able to momentarily overwhelm Neji during their training and break Pain's chakra receivers with ease.

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. Her new-found chakra control can also emit 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, Hinata is able to freely manipulate the size and strength of the chakra blades, effectively allowing her to use this technique for offence and defence.

In Part II of the anime, Hinata's chakra control has advanced greatly as seen in the Three-Tails Arc, where her chakra control was mentioned as being at least on par with that of a medical-nin, 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.

Introduction arc
Hinata was first seen along with the graduating class, including Naruto. She silently hoped that she would be on the same team with Naruto though it was to not to be the case, much to her disappointment. However, she obeyed being allocated to Team 8 along with Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame.

Chunin Exams 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 the proctor, 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 Ame genin. After Gaara killed the Amegakure 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 that could never change. This angered Naruto, and he encouraged Hinata, 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 Neji but, due to the injuries she received from Neji not being fully healed, Hinata passed out during the match, and did not see the outcome of the match. Kiba gets her medical attention from Kabuto Yakushi, who was disguised as an ANBU. She is healed, but remains unconscious for the rest of the invasion of Konoha

Invasion of Konoha arc
Hinata can be seen at the Third Hokage's funeral mourning his death.

Pre-Shippuden arc