Hinata Hyuga
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| Hinata Hyuga | |
|---|---|
| (日向ヒナタ) | |
 Hinata Hyuga by Masashi Kishimoto. |
|
| Debut | Manga Chapter 34 Anime Episode 1 |
| Seiyū | Nana Mizuki |
| Voice actor(s) | Stephanie Sheh |
| Profile | |
| Age | 12-13 in Part I 15 in Part II |
| Date of birth | December 27 |
| Blood type | A |
| Height | 148.3 cm |
| Weight | 38.2 kg |
| Notable relatives | Hiashi Hyuga (father) Hanabi Hyuga (sister) Hizashi Hyuga (uncle, deceased) Neji Hyuga (cousin) |
| Information | |
| Current rank | Chunin |
| Current affiliation | Hyuga clan (Main), Konohagakure |
| Current team | Team 8 (Kurenai Yuhi, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka) |
| Signature jutsu/Kekkei genkai | |
Hinata Hyuga (日向ヒナタ Hyūga Hinata?) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Naruto.
Hyuga (日向?) means "toward the sun" and is the name of a city in the Miyazaki Prefecture in Japan. "Hinata", her given name, is a pun, as it is another way to read this kanji and means "a sunny place".
Despite her lack of recent appearances, Hinata is a very popular character: she generally ranks among the top ten in Shonen Jump's character popularity polls.[citation needed]
Contents |
[edit] Background
Hinata is the oldest daughter and heiress to the Hyuga clan. Along with Shino Aburame and Kiba Inuzuka, she is part of Kurenai Yuhi's Team 8. As a member of the Hyuga clan, she possesses the Byakugan, which gives her an almost 360° field of vision, and 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. While Hinata is technically the heiress to the Hyuga clan, her father deemed her a lost cause in her early teens – apparently of even lesser skill than her younger sister, Hanabi, and not even comparable to her cousin Neji – and thus left her in the care of Kurenai when she became Hinata's sensei, stating, "Do what you want with her. She is of no use to me."
In the beginning, Hinata lacked self-confidence and gives up easily. Though she stayed at the training grounds longer than anyone else and worked hard to improve her skills, she would give up when faced with any real competition. In an attempt to change herself, Hinata entered the Chunin exam, where she finally finds the will to never give up. She finds inspiration in Naruto, her academy student crush, whose constant determination and confidence she admires. Hinata's strong affections for Naruto seem to be a rather glaring exception, as no other introduced girl of around Naruto's age has displayed anything of the sort for him.
| Humans are separated by differences they are born with but I want to believe that people can change and wanted to express that. Hinata's theme is 'by believing in yourself, you can become a new person.' | ||
Hinata seems to share similarities with a somewhat established stereotype (or archetype, depending on how one looks at it) of typical manga/anime girls - characterized by cuteness to the point of adorability (or an eerie beauty, as in the case of Rei Ayanami), introversion, dark hair, a fierce resolve to work harder, and a crush on the unaware main character. The "Sailor Hinata" incident is consistent with this, as the uncharacteristic encounter where the main character is shocked by a side of the character he hasn't seen before, often involving nudity, is a recurring theme as well. Compare Shinobu Maehara, Nodoka Miyazaki, and partly Ami Mizuno (who is, ironically, Sailor Mercury).
Hinata's hobby is pressing flowers. Her favorite foods are senzai (soft bean jam) and cinnamon rolls; her least favorite foods are crab and eel. Her favorite phrase is "self-confidence".
[edit] Part I
[edit] Chunin Exam arc
When Naruto briefly breaks the fourth wall during the start of the Chunin Exam and introduces his classmates - the "Rookie 9" - to the audience, he describes Hinata as "a shy, dark, weird girl who always looks away when I look at her". He gradually learns of the kind of person she is by snippets of interaction during the exam; she offers to let him copy off of her paper during its first stage and gives him a case of medicine during the third stage, both acts of kindness rather out of place in the fiercely competitive environment that is the Chunin exam. Though Naruto is oblivious to her attraction to him, his opinion of her becomes more sympathetic and caring.
In an attempt to change herself, Hinata enters the Chunin exam with her team. Because of their exceptional skills in tracking and reconnaissance, they pass the first two tests easily. They encounter a minor obstacle in the form of Gaara, who they witness killing another team single-handedly simply because they looked at him the wrong way. Gaara would have killed Team 8 as well, but Temari convinced Gaara to stop. However, this good fortune does not continue into the last stage.
Hinata is paired against her cousin Neji Hyuga in the preliminary battles. This is an abysmal match-up for her, as Neji not only uses the same fighting style - and is much better at it - but also has a bitter grudge against the main house. He takes this opportunity to belittle her aspiration of changing herself, carrying a rather mentally unbalancing speech tinged with fatalism with the conclusion that personality traits and ability are determined at birth and, ultimately, people cannot change. As the ferocity of the speech and Neji's psychological warfare intensifies, Hinata is practically brought to tears, at which point Naruto, who is enraged by Neji's belittling, shouts for her to stand up for herself.
Inspired by Naruto's words, Hinata battles Neji, much to his surprise. Though it seems as if she is actually doing well at first, it turns out that Neji was merely toying with her. Although he blocks off the chakra holes in her arms, rendering her Gentle Fist attacks useless, she fights on, unwilling to submit. Her continued defiance of the obvious outcome of the match confuses Neji, causing him to sweat, but he remains in command of the match. After a second attack aimed at her heart by Neji, it seems as if she isn't getting up. Just as the examiner is about to call the match, Naruto stops him. Sakura berates him for it, since Hinata is unconscious, but he merely looks at her, noticing that she's getting up once more. On the verge of collapse, Hinata tells Neji that he has the situation backwards. It's him that is fighting against his fate, not Hinata. This drives Neji into a blind rage, and it took four Jonin to stop him from landing a killing blow on Hinata. Regardless, the previous injuries have left Hinata near death, and she collapses shortly after they stop him. When Naruto comes up to check on her, she tries to ask him if she's changed even a little, but can only manage to say, "do you." Then, unable to speak, she finishes her sentence in her head, "think I changed, maybe even a little," before losing consciousness.
One month later, just as the main matches are about to begin, Hinata meets Naruto again, this time in the training area. Despite the training he's had over the one-month break, he confides in her that his self-doubt is increasing, and he thinks he only appears strong to her because he's always acting strong to cover up the frustration of his constant failures. Upon hearing this, Hinata immediately speaks up, telling him that it isn't true. She tells him that even though he fails a lot, he never gives up. Awed and cured of his self-doubt, Naruto in turn tells her that he always thought of her as "a dark, weird girl", but that now, he thinks he likes people like her. This leaves her blushing in place, which goes comically undisturbed even after Naruto is long gone and Kiba arrives to take her to the stadium.
During Naruto's match against Neji, the injuries Hinata suffered in her match against her cousin show to be not fully healed. She begins coughing and is healed by a masked ninja, later to be revealed as Kabuto Yakushi. Kabuto heals Hinata of her injuries and has medics take her away. Her injuries prevent her from watching the rest of the match, so she never sees Naruto win, nor does she see him use the demon fox's chakra.
[edit] Filler arcs
Curiously, Hinata enjoys a large amount of spotlight in the "filler" arcs. Though it follows the common filler pattern of sending Naruto off to a mission with members of another team, the Bikochu arc is about her and her development for all intents and purposes, which is very unusual since filler arcs tend to shy away from developments regarding the original cast in order to maintain continuity with the manga.
[edit] Bikochu arc
In this arc, Hinata – who is pained to see Naruto's constant frustration about losing Sasuke – convinces the rest of Team 8 to try to find some way to help him. Shino recalls the existence of the Bikochu (微香虫 "Faint smell bug" or "scent bug"?), a rare insect with great tracking ability, which, he says, is pretty much their only chance to help, and consequently says that they shouldn't go because the chance of finding this bug is very small. Very uncharacteristically, Hinata insists that they should go and they wind up taking the idea to Tsunade, who agrees to send them off to the mission, even sending Naruto off with them, who she claims would have gone anyway.
During one of their sleeping breaks on the way to Bikochu Forest, Naruto wakes up to relieve his bladder. While he does so, his attention is drawn to a nearby waterfall, where a beautiful nude girl is performing a sort of swirling dance that causes the water to sprout in an orb around her. Awed by this captivating sight, he approaches her and asks who she is, only to slip on a rock and fall in the water, thus alerting her to his presence. He apologizes but there is no response, as she is already gone. Though it is quite obvious that this girl was Hinata, Naruto fails to make the connection and later excitedly recounts to Kiba how he saw this "ultra-pretty girl" during the night, embarrassing her incredibly. He fails to notice this connection, as well.
However, other shinobi from the Aburame's rival bug clan in Hidden Rock are also after the Bikochu in order to restore their clan, so after numerous decoys, counter-decoys, traps and other types of underhanded warfare, during which all of the team members come inches from gruesome deaths, it is ultimately Hinata who comes to the rescue. Presumed dead by the Konoha-nin's adversaries, she appears in a crucial moment and nullifies the combined effect of all of the Kamizuru bee swarm jutsu, including a gigantic bee summon, by means of a new, original jutsu she has developed - Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, a technique combining elements of Neji's Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms and Eight Trigram Palms Heavenly Spin. Shino explains Hinata's motives of pushing herself to this level - she did it to be acknowledged by her father and Naruto. Exhausted, Hinata begins to collapse, but is caught in Naruto's arms. Naruto smiles at her and exclaims how amazing she was. Hinata looks up at him, smiles happily and buries her face in his chest
Later, when back in the village, the Hyuga clan - Hiashi, Hinata and Neji - are seen sitting together in the clan residence. Hiashi asks her how the mission went to which she responds, smiling, that it was a complete and utter failure. Quite surprised by this change of attitude, Hiashi smiles and tells her to do her best, and the arc ends with the smiling Hyuga clan and her staring up at the sunlight and resolving to always strive to become stronger. This concept is largely not filler; the manga similarly deals with the healing of the Hyuga clan and Hinata's ever-strengthening resolve.
[edit] Treasure Hunt arc
In a later filler arc, Tsunade decides to send Naruto, Hinata, and Kiba on a mission to retrieve a box that a man who calls himself Kaisen Agari is looking for. However, there is a catch: due to the fact they failed in both the Bikochu and Bounty Hunter missions, if the three genin fail once again, they would be sent back to the academy. Fearing for their ninja status, Naruto and Kiba spend much of the trip bickering about who is lagging down who, while Hinata quietly watches, not wanting to get in the way. As a result, Hinata gets a nasty cut on her leg while following Naruto's brazen way of path-finding.
They are soon trapped in a cave by Agari, and his comrades proceeded to use a jutsu that allowed them to copy the faces and bodies of Naruto, Hinata, and Kiba. This jutsu is apparently potent enough to escape detection by smell. Before leaving, the cave is rigged with explosive notes that will crush the three real genin. However, Naruto, Kiba, and Akamaru manage to free Hinata from her ropes via biting, and Hinata proceeds to use Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms to deflect the debris from the explosion. After momentarily fainting again when she got too close to Naruto, Hinata frees Kiba, who uses Gatsuga to dig them out. Once on the outside, all three of them realize their lack of teamwork was what had made this mission become almost a failure. It was decided that Naruto and Kiba would run ahead to the village and stop the imposters while Hinata would go her own pace. Upon returning to the village, Hinata finds that all is well and that the imposters were actually hired by Tsunade to test their skills; however, she found out too late to stop herself from giving Naruto a Gentle Fist attack after Naruto forgot the sign that was suppose to indicate he was the real Naruto.
Their mission does end in success, but it turned out this mission was a ploy to increase and improve their teamwork skills. Most importantly, they didn't have to worry about losing their status.
[edit] The Land of Vegetables
In a recent filler arc, Hinata, Naruto, and Choji are sent to escort a group of peddlers from Nano country, which is being pillaged by three mysterious ninja brothers who use nature-elemental jutsu. The group from Konoha discover that among the peddlers was hidden the last heiress of the Nano Country nobility and that the three mysterious ninja were trying to kill her.
The princess believed Naruto was a living failure of a ninja because he listened to his emotions. Hinata defends Naruto stating that Naruto was always alone and he didn't have a family. Hinata also stated that Naruto has never thought about running away or abandoning people to save himself, and works hard to gain respect and become the next Hokage. The princess questions Hinata on her feelings for Naruto, but all Hinata does is blush. The princess figures it out and says she understands. However, when Hinata turns around the princess knocks her out with a rock and said that she has no intention of dying due to Hinata or Naruto. Naruto later finds Hinata and berates her for not being able to defend herself. Naruto runs ahead to find the princess and tells Hinata to find Choji.
Hinata is unable to find Choji, but she finds Naruto's headband on the ground. When she meets up with Naruto, he's fighting a powerful enemy that utilizes magnetic jutsu. Naruto tells Hinata that she will be in danger if she comes to help him and he falls down due to his injuries. Hinata decides that she will protect him. She's no match for him at first, just narrowly escaping his magnetic attacks, but eventually turns his own magnetism techniques against him, causing him to become covered in a thick layer of iron particles and subsequently buried deep underground. She would have been buried, too, but Naruto and Choji arrived in time to save her. Naruto is somewhat surprised that she won, later saying that he can't lose to her (in an encouraging way), and leaves her with Choji as he goes to find the princess. A little later, Hinata and Choji are captured by the third and most powerful brother.
Naruto confronts the final brother, and he has some trouble with him for a while. Eventually, Naruto uses the brother's power against him by reflecting the light back at the Criminal brother and injuring him. As a result, Naruto emerged the victor over him. Afterwards, Shizune comes with Shikamaru, and it turns out they rescued Hinata and Choji. The princess seemed to have a change of heart after all of this, and she starts to value other people's lives over her own. The princess wanted to hire Naruto to help her rebuild her country, but he said that he needs to go home so he can train and become stronger, so he could help his friends. The princess understood and said goodbye and thanked Naruto, Hinata, and Choji for their services.
[edit] Konoha 11 arc
Like the rest of the Konoha Genin, Hinata is part of Shikamaru's investigation into the plot of Gennou, repeatedly using her Byakugan alongside Neji to help discover traps. At one point, Naruto, in need of a Byakugan user, bumps into Hinata and asks for her help, accidentally using a double entendre which can also be mistaken as asking someone out on a date. Hinata, at a loss of words, begins to blush and twiddle her fingers. Sakura, who was also present, also misconstrues his intention and scolds him. Confused, Naruto simply notes that they're busy and decides to ask Neji, both shocking and confusing the two. Later on, while everyone talks around her, Hinata silently glances over at Shino who senses her distress and turns around to ask what's wrong. She sees a second trail leading away from the trigger. She and Neji survey the village, learning that a massive network of interconnected exploding tags had been woven throughout the village during Gennou's time as a carpenter. When Gennou tried to use his summoned bird to blow up Konoha, Hinata helped Naruto defeat it by using her Byakugan to predict its movements.
[edit] Part II
Like the rest of the "rookie nine", Hinata has become a Chunin during Naruto's absence. She makes her Hurricane Chronicles debut in Chapter 282, having blossomed into a young woman, sporting longer hair, and wearing slightly different-colored clothing. Hinata's feelings for Naruto seem to have been magnified by his long absence; she wasn't even able to bring herself to greet him, opting to hide instead and fainting when he rather loudly detects her, much like she did before the timeskip.
It is as of yet unknown how her skill has changed during the two and a half years Naruto was gone as she has yet to show any new techniques.
