After watching an episode of Naruto last Friday, I really felt so motivated and compelled that it's the right time to tell you how much love, admiration and respect I have for one of the characters on Naruto namely Hinata Hyuga and how much I am grateful for Masashi Kishimoto for creating such a spectacular character that can change a person's life.

I will also talk about my history with the Naruto series to be able to share this to you much more clearer.

In this case, it'll both be about my love for the show and my love for Hinata.

I've decided to start off by telling you a long story about how I became to love Naruto then on a separate (and long) post, I'd share you how much I love Hinata

I've been wanting to write this for a while now and it was absolutely hard trying to actually start writing this because I have alot to say regarding these topics but anyways, I'll do my best to cover up all of the details.

Without further ado, shall we begin with:

My pretty long history with Naruto

(Photo grabbed from a tumblr user)

Technically Naruto only entered my life, as a whole, during last year's summer when I started binge-watching the show. I wanted to do something that would make my life have more substance. A year has passed and I'm now at Shippuden. Oh my precious babies are all grown up now.

But my history with Naruto didn't start up from there because, for some reason, it also was a part of my childhood even if it's just a fraction of it (because Mirmo de Pon and Pokemon stole my time during that age).

As a kid, I grew up watching anime so it was probably an inevitable destiny that even if I didn't fully started getting into the Naruto series as a little boy growing up, it still managed to creep into my system and lived there in small embers. It was asleep in me yet it had the slightest chance of erupting in the near future in which, in my case, it did happen.

Let's all throwback to the time when I was a super duper tiny Jeffy probably when I was in Grade 2. It was night time and we were all laying on our cushions on the floor because we used to sleep on the floor. It's me and my brother's daily habit of scrolling through night time shows that led us on to land on Cartoon Network exactly at the time Naruto was airing. I wasn't fully into the show back then because as I said earlier, Pokemon was with me. Though I knew some of the basics: There's a guy named Naruto with Sakura and Sasuke as his team-mates and Kakashi as leader and he had other ninja friends as well though the prominent ones I had in my mind during that time was Neji, Hinata and Choji (with Choji being my favorite during that time). It was showing an episode where Naruto disguised himself as Sasuke and he had almost gotten a kiss from Sakura. I remembered that I was laughing so hard on the inside because of that scene and I had one of my very first kilig scene from an anime.

Now we shall move to another throwback moment in my history book. This one probably happened when I was in Grade 3 and my brother was in Grade 4. That year (2007) brought a bit of the Naruto sparks in me ignite a little more brighter as that was the year my brother showed and played me all the original Naruto openings. I remembered thinking how the songs were so catchy and so cool that it was also during that time when I first mastered and memorized singing my very first Japanese Anime opening - the 3rd opening theme from Naruto

"Kanashimi o Yasashisa ni" or in English

"Turning Sadness into Kindness"

Oh the love I have for this one song.

The song, which consisted of a rap didn't hinder me from actually singing this song. It brings back so many memories of me singing it in the car or when I go to sleep. It was a song that lasted with me throughout my years and has lived in me as I grew up. I even memorized it by heart and up until now, I still know every word. A few years ago, I was able to know it's English translation and let me tell you this, it was hella inspirational!

The video was also touching, it showed clips of different characters and their sad pasts and as it progresses, it begins "lighting" up until it shows one of my favorite parts of it: a montage of clips showing each of the teams. It was super cool! Oh did I also tell you it had Hinata in the beginning? Who knows, this opening theme might also have been a factor of me for to get to know and like Hinata.

I was really disappointed to find out this opening was in WatchMojo's "Worst Anime Openings". Different people have different tastes I guess.

Now, let's move on from talking about the opening and head on, yet again, one year into the future: when I was in Grade 4 and my brother was in Grade 5.

During this time was when my brother got sick of a dengue and our family had to stay in and sleep with him at his hospital room. The room had a T.V and everyone was sleeping so I had the opportunity of scrolling through channels until I ended up with Animax and they were airing a Naruto Shippuden show. I got to hear the 3rd opening theme from Naruto Shippuden. This memory of mine was one of the latest that I got to recall back as I only got to remember this when I actually reached the Naruto Shippuden arc with this as the theme song.     

   Naruto Shippuden Opening 3 from Anime Downloads on Vimeo.

The next Naruto moment I remembered was when I was in Grade 5 (2009) and another year has passed.

This was when I remembered I was playing tag with some of my grade school friends and I was always running around like a ninja, I was considerably slow compared to my other classmates and I'd always be tagged. Now, when it was my turn to chase after them and I couldn't get to them. I'd stay in my spot, pretend to put on a hand sign, then relax to get some "chakra energy" and after a few minutes I'd quietly say to myself "Eight tri-grams sixty four palms" or "Byakugan" and after that I'd get a surge of power and before you know it, I get to tag my friends with more speed. And during that time, I don't know much about Hinata or Neji and all their jutsu so, looking back, it was surprising to see how I was able to use those terms without even knowing what they actually meant.

Another short yet notable event on my life concerning how Naruto was with me when I was a kid was the fact that during that same year as well, my brother would watch Naruto Shippuden at the evening on the computer and I don't, 'cause I was still a kid and I'd get to hear the 4th Opening Theme song as he watches the night away.

Naruto Shippuden Opening 4 from Sardock on Vimeo.

Now, because of this constant habit of him watching this show with this catchy theme song currently on, I'd get dreams in my sleep about me being able to be inside the theme song as well doing my own ninja skills and interacting with the different characters in the opening theme song visuals as seen above. ^

And of course, the inevitable moments of seeing my brother and my cousin watching this show as it's aired in Tagalog dub at ABS-CBN back then with me being all like "meh" while the both of them are constantly sharing their love for the series at each other.

So now you could see how much I've had Naruto within me as a kid but it wasn't really "consciously" there if you know what I mean.

It could've been lying dormant even in my teenage years until I unconsciously turned it on to it's awakening on one fateful night of last year's summer break. I was really bored during that time when a thought came to my head that told me to start watching the show! With just a few clicks away on that same night I started watching the show and let me tell you this, I got the nostalgia feels flooding me one by one in high tempo! I was getting goosebumps at every episode and this love I have lying dormant in here within me exploded as I become a weab for all things Naruto now.

Just like every good anime has their own inspirational moral that every viewer gets to take and it was the same thing for me. I got to learn lots of values and important lessons in life.

Lessons about the truth on friendship, betrayal, trust, love, giving up, determination, perseverance, moving on, finding inspiration in everything you do, having your own standpoint in life and even deeper facts such as about believing in the youth, trusting the future generation, knowing your worth, leading the young ones to good hands as well as about the "will of fire".

I love this anime so much now and I came upon to realize things I never knew was inside of me. I was able to see the reason over the hype I've seen on this show that I wasn't able to understand when I was a kid.

Each character on this show has their own story to tell and at least one of them can be relatable to you in your own way in which in my case, took it's form into Hinata Hyuga which I'd hopefully be able to share with you why on my next post!

I really recommend you to watch this spectacular anime. It's an anime that'll surely be an ageless & timeless show that will last for generations. It's never too late to start on this series!

I hope you liked this lengthy yet heartfelt post. Thank you so much for taking your time to read the whole thing!

'Til next time!

A/N: This was originally titled as "My History with Naruto and My Love for Hinata" but as I wrote through this I realized it'll be a long post and I'm not kidding when I said that, I really saw that it'll be SUPER lengthy. That's why I decided to put this topic in 2 separate posts in a form of a short series. The link to that post will be shared here the moment it's up!

UPDATE #1 : The post for part 2 is up! Click this link to take you to it.