Hinata and Naruto

Hinata's strained relationship with her father caused her to lose faith in herself and she would spend her time alone, often crying. It wasn't until she met Naruto Uzumaki that her perception drastically changed. Because Naruto was treated as an outcast by almost everyone in the village, Hinata found herself able to relate with his desire to be acknowledged and praised. She was amazed that despite Naruto having nothing and no one to rely on, he never gave up in believing he could become something great like Hokage. In the anime, Naruto was at one point shown protecting Hinata from bullies. Despite Naruto not knowing her, he refused to let the kids insult and degrade her. Since they outnumbered him, they beat him up and knocked him out. Surprised by how much Naruto wanted to help and believing that she too deserved to be acknowledged, Hinata was inspired. Like Naruto, she ultimately decided to try her best to become strong and never give up, so she could become acknowledged as well. This admiration of Naruto later grew into affection despite warnings from her elders to stay away from him.

In the anime, she was able to remove a few of the Chakra Disruption Blades that were on Naruto and even land a blow against the Deva Path. While he did eventually subdue her with Shinra Tensei, he was puzzled why she was willing to fight despite being weakened by his blow. Hinata, crawling near Naruto and still attempting to remove the chakra blade from him, replied by echoing Naruto's words: it is her ninja way.

Hinata's division resumed battling the White Zetsu Army clones. While fighting, she was attacked by three Zetsu clones transformed into Kumo-nin simultaneously, but their attack was intercepted by one of Naruto's shadow clones. After Kiba, Akamaru, Shino and Neji arrived on the scene, Neji demanded that Naruto proved who he is, but Hinata told them that if they looked into his eyes, they would know that he was in fact Naruto. Lamenting the fact that though she wanted to protect Naruto, he ended up saving her instead. However, Naruto saw her sorrow, as he is able to being in Kyuubi mode, and reminded her she was very strong, recounting her coming to his aid during the invasion of Pain, to which she silently thanked him for.

When they were in the academy she was never a great ninja just like Naruto, when she felt down and felt like giving up she looked to Naruto and saw how he never gave up, and wanted to follow his footsteps. She first saw him as a role model and then began to really love him. Her love grew throughout the series to now. That is why she loves him.