This Underrated Naruto Character Had the Franchise’s Most Tragic Backstory

The Naruto anime stars Naruto Uzumaki as a total zero-to-hero who needed a few role models and friends to push him along, and he wasn’t the only one. Plenty of genin in the Hidden Leaf Villages had rough backstories that threatened to end their ninja careers before they even began, which includes the timid Hinata Hyuga. She wasn’t feared and hated by the entire village like Naruto was, but Hinata still faced serious, unfair hardship that formed a shaky foundation for her ninja career.

While the story of Naruto only spent a modest amount of time on Hinata Hyuga’s backstory, it was enough for Hinata’s personal arc to become a sympathetic and relatable one. In addition, Hinata’s arc is underrated because it neatly ties into other themes about how the Hyuga clan operates and how that might tie into the pre-village past. Hinata’s backstory also matches the best backstories of the Konoha 11 to show why she is a true shonen underdog and not just filler character.

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What Happened in Hinata Hyuga’s Backstory?

She Was the Wrong Heir to Her Father’s Position

Hinata’s backstory began with her birth into the Hyuga clan, one of the most respected and powerful shinobi families in the entire Hidden Leaf Village. More specificially, Hinata was born into the main branch of the family as the firstborn child of Hiashi Hyuga, the clan’s head. That made her the cousin of Hizashi’s younger brother’s son, Neji. Unlike Neji, who was expected to fight to protect the main family and their precious Byakugan eyes, Hinata was raiased to be the future head of the entire clan. That defined her entire early life, as the Naruto lore implied, but things soon went wrong for Hinata and her father. While Hinata was kidnapped by Cloud ninjas and Hizashi had to die as repayment for killing the kidnappers, the worst problem was more personal. Hiashi determined that his oldest daughter was simply the wrong kind of person to succeed him.

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In Naruto, Hiashi Hyuga was presented as a stern, demanding father and family head who had no patience for apparent weakness or gentleness. He wanted an heir who would fully and boldly embrace the power of the Hyyga clan’s Gentle Fist style, but Hinata had a totally different personality. By nature, Hinata was a kind, compassionate girl who didn’t want to harm others, not even in sparring sessions with her slightly younger sister, Hanabi. That deeply concerned Hiashi, who wanted a more “typical” heir, and Hiashi made up his mind after Hinata refused to harm her sister in a serious sparring match. Despite being the younger daughter, Hanabi was deemed a proper heir to the Hyuga clan, and Hinata was coldly discarded as a failure.

After being disinherited, Hiashi arranged to have his oldest daughter put in the care of a jonin named Kurenai Yuhi, who went on to become Hinata’s leader in Team 8 once Hinata graduated from the ninja academy. During her academy days, Hinata continued to be a modest, unassertive kunoichi who didn’t tap into her true potential and didn’t stand out at all. She was even bullied for her Byakugan eyes, only for Naruto Uzumaki to stand up for her, inspiring Hinata with their newfound power of friendship. Naruto’s good example as a heroic hard worker inspired Hinata to do the same, but even so, she would be a late bloomer compared to her sister and cousin, even with the rest of Team 8 backing her up.

Hinata’s Experiences Reflect the Hyuga Clan’s Pragmatic Conservatism

The Hyuga Clan is Echoing the Feudal Era Madara Uchiha Once Knew

While the lore of Naruto‘s world doesn’t explicitly cover this topic, anime fans can still infer that Hinata Hyuga’s rough backstory is a symtom of the Hyuga clan’s old-fashioned traditions, which might date back to the feudal era itself. The Hyuga clan is one of only a few groups in the entire Hidden Leaf Village that relies on harsh and demanding rules to get the job done, rather than rely on sentiment or, more often, the power of friendship and love, as the Will of Fire would suggest. This doesn’t make the Hyuga clan evil, but even other shinobi may call it problematic if asked, and it feels dated compared to how the rest of the village operates. It’s possible that the Hyuga clan’s harsh, pragmatic rules are a holdover from the pre-village feudal era, the era shown in Madara Uchiha’s flashbacks.

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If Hinata’s experiences really are an extension of this pre-village tradition, then that makes the Hyuga clan one of the most conservative groups in the Hidden Leaf Village, honoring the well-established traditions and refusing to fix what isn’t broken, at least in their own eyes. While the current era does have its bloodshed and tensions, the feudal era was even more chaotic and dangerous, with no villages to protect everyone. Ninja clans feuded nonstop in a vast web of rivalries and feuds, forcing the clans to adopt strict and pragmatic rules, such as sending children into battle to maintain military strength. Nothing was held back and everything was done for the sake of a clan’s survival, with no room for sentimentality or love. To some degree or other, the Hyuga clan continued operating that way into the era of Naruto’s and Hinata’s own childhood.

Whether or not the Naruto anime meant to draw that parallel and make an analogy to the feudal era, the signs are still there, and it would explain why Hinata had a terrible childhood while most other Konoha 11 members were treated fairly by their own families. The other Konoha 11 members did have their own issues growing up, but Hinata’s and Neji’s were entirely different, suffering because their clan had stern, unforgiving rules that feel more suited for the bygone feudal era of endless bloodshed. Perhaps out of pride or fear of losing their prominence, the Hyugas didn’t adapt to the Will of Fire and the power of love and friendship, instead staying hard in an era were it was safe to be a little softer as a shinobi. While that system may produce highly capable shinobi, it may also ruin lives and create tension or conflicts that were totally avoidable otherwise.

Hinata’s Rough Backstory With Her Father Did Not Completely Define Her

Where She Came From Doesn’t Decide Her Fate

During her time in the Hyuga clan, Hinata’s experiences with her stern father greatly shaped her life, because her father, Hiashi, was the most important and powerful person in her life. While Hiashi was a naturally caring person, he had hardened his heart after his brother Hizashi’s death, and that, combined with his duties as the family head, led him to pressuring his daughter to succeed at all costs. Unfortunately, that only served to make Hinata more timid, and it also forced Hinata to cling to her pacifistic ways after being told to fight people like her sister Hanabi. Neither Hinata nor Hiashi could give each other what the other expected out of them, with Hinata being an “unworthy” head and Hiashi being cold and stern rather than warm and supportive.

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While Hiashi’s stern parenting still had a lingering effect on Hinata’s psyche, being away from the clan gave Hinata the right context to redefine herself and build a new fate for herself as an ex-heirless. That change did not happen quickly, and it might not have happened at all if Naruto Uzumaki hadn’t shouted those words of encouragement during the Chunin Exam story arc. But at least Hinata was in the right context to change herself, and in time, she did just that. That doesn’t make Hinata unique, either — it allowed her to mirror the rest of the Konoha 11, albeit with a different background. The others were shaped by a lack of talent or bullying, while Hinata had mental scars from a strict upbringing, something few other genin would understand. That makes it all the more impressive how Hinata Hyuga transformed herself over time, making her arc rather underrated.

The Naruto anime had, among other themes, the theme that where a person came from isn’t as important as where they are going. Naruto himself is the best example, going from a feared and hated pariah orphan to the hero of the village, and Rock Lee glowed up by embracing taijutsu with Might Guy, no longer caring that he could not perform any jutsu. Sakura Haruno had a similar glow up after training with Tsunade to define herself as a kunoichi after the two-year time skip, but she had the benefit of parents who supported her, while Hinata did not. Hinata went further than almost anyone else to distance herself from a grim backstory to build a new future, one that she could decide for herself rather than merely be her father’s born successor. Like her cousin Neji, Hinata rejected her fate and found true happiness as a result.

Naruto

Naruto Uzumaki, a mischievous adolescent ninja, struggles as he searches for recognition and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the village’s leader and strongest ninja.

Release Date

September 10, 2002

Cast

Junko Takeuchi , Maile Flanagan , Kate Higgins

Seasons

1

Creator

Masashi Kishimoto

Production Company

Pierrot, Staralis Film Company

Number of Episodes

220

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