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Stats infromation from Wikipedia
Character Name: Hinata Hyuga
Debut: Chatper 34 in the Manga/ Episode 1 of the anime
Age 12-13 in Part I
Birthday: December 27th
Blood Type: A
Known Relatives:
Hiashi Hyuga-father-
Hanabi Hyuga- sister-
Hizashi Hyuga- uncle (deceased)
Neji Hyuga- cousin-
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We, the audiance, first meet Hinata during the start of the Chuunin exam arc(manga). At first, Hinata seems to be a very shy and quiet girl- in the words of Naruto 'a shy and dark girl'. Through the course of the written exam, we- and Naruto as well- find out a bit more about Hinata when she offers to help Naruto cheat through the written exam by showing him her test paper. Eventhough Naruto was at first suspcious by this strange act, he later realizes that Hinata has good intentions.

During the third portion of the Chuunin exam: It is revealed that Hinata is the 'heiress' to the Hyuga clan. Neji- her older cousin- seems to greatly resent Hinata, because he sees her as a 'failure' and a 'weakling'. When she is pitted against Neji, Hinata nearly gives up, but Naruto encourages her to keep on fighting. Determined to see the fight to the end- even though it becomes obvious early on that she is not going to win- Hinata becomes severly injured as a result of her fight against Neji, but she doesn't seem to regret it since she viewed the fight as a pathway toward changing herself.

Later, when Naruto leaves to fight Neji in the Chuunin exam finals, Hinata appears and shyly encourages him, just like Naruto had encouraged Hinata before her fight against Neji.

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*If you wish to view spoilers for Naruto Shippuden then highlight the white text below. Also, please note that most of this information comes from a combination of postings on Wikipedia and Naruto Manga Returns MSN*

Spoilers: Hinata- along with Shino, Kiba and Akamaru- reappears in chapter 282 of the manga. At this point of the manga, Naurto is looking for teammates to tempoarily replace Sasuke and Kakashi. He first runs across Shino- who he doesn't reconize. Kiba and Akamaru show up next. Then, Hinata rounds the corner, only to shyly sneak back into the allyway. The young woman worries about how she is going to approch Naruto- who she hasn't seen in three years-. However, before Hinata has a chance to compose herself, Naruto peeks around the corner and frightens the poor girl to the point that she passes out in a dead faint.

Chapter 354, Team 8 is re-reintroduced to the reader as part of- what I like to call 'the Super Team' i.e a combination of Team 8, the 'new' Team 7 and Kakashi- the platoon which will hunt down and 'capture' Itachi in order to lure Sasuke, who has recently 'killed'- killed being loosely used- Orochimaru and has created his own team of strong 'misfits' known as Team Hibi(Snake).

The member of Team 8 seem to be apart of this mission because they excell at tracking- i.e Hinata's eyesight, Shino's bugs, and Kiba/Akamaru combo. However, in chapter 355, the team is split up into seperate parties- each accompanied by at least two of Kakashi ninja dogs. Naruto, Hinata, and Yamato. End of Spoilers.
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I think I might have stated this before, but, Hinata is my favorite female character out of the Naruto series. I find her goal to become stronger- a better person as she calls it- to be an admirble goal to accomplish. I also can relate to Hinata's quite/shy nature. I think that Hinata,as a character, has a lot of room for furhter development so I look forward to seeing what Kishimoto might have in store for her.