Hinata Hyūga became a household name with the rise in popularity of the manga and anime series Naruto. Created by Masashi Kishimoto, the manga was first published in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine.
Fans were immediately drawn towards the storyline, which led to Naruto becoming one of the best-selling mangas to date. The series would grow and become adapted into anime, movies, and even video games. (Some even consider it to be better than Dragon Ball Z.)
The lead character, naturally known as Naruto, helped launch the series towards its popularity. However, it would be the simple and shy mannered Hinata who would capture hearts and play a major role in its global recognition.
The Hyūga house is a powerful family that expected nothing less than perfection from its members. At a young age, Hinata didn’t live up to her family’s standards and was considered next to worthless.
They felt this way because she had a kind heart and was compassionate towards others. These feelings from her family led to her having a timid and shy personality, which made her look weak amongst the community.
Over the course of the series, Hinata would become a character who fans could relate to and want to follow. Despite her popularity, there are plenty of things that fans might not know about Hinata Hyūga.
To find out what these deep dark secrets might be, here are the 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Hinata.
15. She Obtains Chakra From Hagoromo
When Hinata meets Hamura in part two of the anime series, a critical occurrence takes place that would forever alter her chakra power. Because Hinata is a member of the Hyūga clan’s main house, she inherits some of Hamura Ōtsutsuki’s chakra.
The technique of transferring power in this way was invented by Hagoromo Ōtsutsuk to allow a spiritual energy connection to exist between living creatures. As time passed, the technique became a tool for war. The transfer between Ōtsutsuki and Hinata was similar to the transfer’s original intent.
Ironically, the combination of purity and strength would lead to Hamura transferring his power to Hinata as well. This added power would be the cause of her chakra turning from the color blue to the powerful purple.
14. She Created An Original Jutsu At 16
One of Hinata Hyūga’s major accomplishments came at a young age with the creation of her own Twin Lion Fist jutsu.
She was the second youngest to achieve this mastery behind Kakashi, and the youngest overall to fluently use it in battle. This powerful technique is a highly guarded secret in the Hyūga clan and is only taught to main members.
In the anime, Hinata is the sole creator of this technique with a little added flare given to its name ─ Gentle Steps Twin Lion Fist. Mastering this technique at such an early age launched Hinata to the fore-front of powerful characters on the anime series and in the video games.
Don’t let first impressions of this humble girl fool you, as she’ll knock more than your teeth out with this ferocious dual punch jutsu.
13. She and Kushina Were Almost Kidnapped
As a young girl, Hinata was celebrating her third birthday while a major peace treaty was supposed to be taking place.
The purpose of the gathering was to stop the fighting between the Kumogakure and the Konohagakure, but this was just a ruse. The real directive, in what would become known as the Hyūga Affair, was for the cloud ninjas to abduct Hinata.
While the kidnapping of Hinata ultimately failed, there was a similar attempt made on Kushina Uzumaki. Manga and anime fans were led to believe these abductions occurred because both girls harnessed massive amounts of power.
It also works as a convenient story-line to bring them together. Could the real reason behind the kidnappings been strictly political in both cases? Only the cloud ninjas know the truth, and they’re not revealing their secrets anytime soon.
12. Her Name Means “Place In The Sun”
A name holds great significance, especially in anime. In Hinata’s case, “place in the sun” translates to having a position of favor or advantage. It can also be associated with someone who is kind and compassionate towards others.
A character’s name can give manga and anime fans insight into their personality and story arc. Hinata may have started off as a shy and timid little girl that seemed slightly creepy, but her name meant she was destined more.
In Kanji, Hinata is written the same as her family name Hyūga (日向). This means that Hinata was meant to be one of the greats, which explains how her character transforms, as she continues to grow and mature.
11. She Is A Brilliant Prodigy In The Making
Despite having only completed 33 missions throughout the course of the series, Hinata was at the top of her class scholastically from a very young age.
She graduated the academy at 12 with the highest of scores and was in the field by the age of 14. While this may not stand out amongst some other powerful Naruto characters, it was amazing that Hinata could keep up with these greats being as shy and stand-offish as she was.
For someone who didn’t like fighting and was looked down upon by her family as weak because of her kindness, Hinata was able to overcome amazing odds.
Her favorite phrase “self-confidence” (自信, jishin) led her on the path towards greatness, allowing her to overcome the doubts from her peers.
10. She Is The Legendary Queen Of Gluttony
For the girl who once said to Naruto, “I used to always cry and give up,” she takes her knew motto of never quitting very seriously.
In the anime, Hinata is recorded to have eaten 46 bowls of ramen at one time. Now, it’s true that Naruto is always singing praises about Ichiraku Ramen, but even he hasn’t been able to down 46 bowls in one sitting.
Ironically, ramen isn’t even Hinata’s favorite food. She would prefer to eat cinnamon rolls and zenzai (a red bean soup) every day if she could get away with it. How Hinata Hyūga could pull off this masterful feat has never been answered.
Perhaps it’s a ninja jutsu that only a member of the Hyūga family can perform, but never put it to use. Don’t challenge her to an eating competition unless it’s with shrimp and crab– Hinata can’t stand either one.
9. She Often Breaks The Rules
During the chunin exams, one of the rules was that a student must secretly cheat off another classmate without them knowing in order to pass the exam. Hinata broke the rule not once, but twice.
First she completed the test without cheating off of her classmates, and then offered Naruto to cheat off of her since he hadn’t cheated either. Neither rule violation disqualified her, but it certainly rustled a few feathers.
Fans assume that she offered Naruto the opportunity to cheat off of her because of her attraction towards him. This is mostly true, but it goes a little deeper than teen-crush feelings.
Later in the series, she would tell Naruto: “In my eyes… you’re a proud failure!” Hinata always looked up to Naruto and saw something in him that no one else would could. In her mind, he was worth breaking the rules for.
8. She Became The Main Heroine
Masashi Kishimoto was urged by his peers to make Hinata more of a heroine halfway through the manga.
They felt that Sakura was getting too much attention and Hinata was the perfect character to step into the role. Kishimoto took the advice offered to him and made changes as the series progressed.
Kishimoto even referred to the influence from his peers in an Easter egg and inside joking kind-of-way. In the omake for Naruto: Shippūden episode 165, Sakura accuses Hinata of trying to become the main heroine of the series because of her popularity.
Hinata is naturally confused by this statement, but Naruto fandom understood the reference just fine. This line would ultimately cause a split amongst fans as to who deserved to be the heroine of the story.
7. The Fandom Ranks Her In Top 10
In a Naruto popularity poll Hinata was ranked at an all-time high of #6 amongst dozens of other characters. As her popularity continued to grow, so did the number of children being named Hinata by fans who went on to become parents.
The name itself is used mostly in Japan, but can be found around the globe, used by boys and girls alike. Her peak in popularity came after the infamous kiss scene between her and Naruto. Fans had been waiting years for this moment and were thrilled when the lips finally started smacking.
Hinata also grew in popularity as Masashi Kishimoto wrote her in as another heroine while also giving her image some maturity upgrades. Many female fans could relate to her timidness at first, and soon became loyal followers as she overcame her shyness.
6. Masashi Kishimoto Admits That She Is His Favorite
Based on several interviews given by Masashi Kishimoto in 2015, he openly admitted to the fact that Hinata Hyūga is one of his favorite characters from the Naruto series.
He confirmed that Hinata was his favorite female character and that he had been planning for her to get together with Naruto since the middle of the manga.
The fandom that Hinata generated seemed to confirm for Massashi that his favoritism was well placed. This only spurred Kishimoto towards building Hinata up and giving her more prominent arcs than the other female characters.
Kishimoto had previously admitted in an interview that he didn’t make plans when writing the Naruto story developments, which only reinforces why Hinata developed and matured the way she did.
Thanks to her creator, Hinata was never at risk from being chopped from the series by an early death.
5. She Has Incredible Powers
Belonging to the Hyūga had many benefits, and Hinata took advantage of them all. Her powers stemmed from possessing the Byakugan, a dojutsu that only had two other forms of dojutsu equivalent to its strength.
Because Hinata possessed the Byakugan, she could use a 360 degree penetrative vision. Her vision powers also included being able to see up to 20 kilometers away (that’s a little over 12 miles), without being affected by blinding interferences.
Hinata could also see fast moving objects and had the ability to use infrared by detecting body heat.
Byakugan users can also give off powerful chakra pulses to subdue an opponent. Add these Wonder Woman-like skills to her other abilities of fire and lightning release, and Hinata was a dominant force during battle.
4. She Had A Few… Rapid Anatomy Changes
Anime and manga usually get a bad rap for being filled with porn-like images and female degradation.
While this is not the common occurrence– most anime creators enjoy pushing the envelope to see what they can get away with– Masashi Kishimoto did this by giving Hinata extremely large breasts come the start of book two.
As a shy and timid girl, Hinata was given a plain and simple appearance. There was nothing about her body or her clothes that made her stand out amongst the other female characters. To make her as popular as Sakura, Kishimoto intentionally drew Hinata to have a larger breast size.
Perhaps Masashi did this to boost her popularity, or because he’s a fan of big boobs. Either way, the change in appearance was a little over the top. As if fans might not notice such an occurrence, Kishimoto even dressed Hinata in more revealing outfits to highlight her recent developments.
3. Her Name Also Referred To A Pure White Lily
In the fourth book, Hinata’s name is referenced as a “pure white lily.” This name reference is important because a white lily was the same flower placed on her cousin Neji’s grave after his death.
The family bond between the two wasn’t strong at the beginning of the series. Believing that his father had been forced to die by the Hyūga main house, Neji would often take his anger out on Hinata and anyone associated with her.
By the end of the series, their relationship had completely changed and the two had grown close. Neji would ultimately suffer the same fate as his father, by sacrificing his life for family and friends.
During the battle with Ten-Tails, Neji steps in front of Hinata who is blocking Naruto from a vicious attack. Struck by hundreds of wood projectiles, Neji is mortally wounded and dies on the shoulder of Naruto.
2. She Has Had Both Short And Long Hair
When audiences were first introduced to Hinata Hyūga, they thought she had short hair because of her shy nature. They also attributed her long hair towards her “new look” that was created in book two. In truth, her hair was short because of her attraction to Naruto.
It was rumored that the cutest boy at the academy, named Sasuke, liked girls with long hair. To keep Naruto from thinking that she liked Sasuke like all of the other girls, Hinata purposely cut her hair to a short length.
As the series progressed and Hinata became more confident towards her feelings for Naruto, her hair was once again returned to its long state. The different hair styles represent two significant time frames in her life, showing her maturity and growth through the series.
1. She Is The Strongest Hyūga Who Ever Lived
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Kishimoto would give Hinata this title. Being one of the main female characters comes with special perks, and being crowned to the Hyūga throne seemed a likely resolve to her character arc.
As an inspiration to shy and timid girls around the globe, Hinata’s story has a fairy-tale ending. She goes from being a nobody to the girl who gets the dreamy hero, the Japanese picket fence, two kids, and ─ oh yeah ─ the title of the strongest Hyūga ever.
While fans still argue about whether Sakura or Hinata is stronger, you can’t deny that Hinata recieved the better storyline.
Both girls showed tremendous power through their abilities, but Hinata ultimately captured the hearts of Naruto fandom and will forever be remembered.
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Can you think of any other interesting facts about Naruto‘s Hinata? Let us know in the comments!