Kurenai Yūhi

**Kurenai Sarutobi** (猿飛紅, *Sarutobi Kurenai*, née **Yūhi** (夕日)) is a member of Konohagakure's Sarutobi clan. During her time as an active duty kunoichi, she served as the jōnin-leader of Team 8.

## Personality

Kurenai is a caring and brave woman. She shows great concern towards her students and takes a vested interest in their growth, especially in regards to Hinata Hyūga due to knowing full well how Hinata was viewed by her father. When Hinata tried to offer Naruto some medicine after his fight with Kiba, Kurenai convinced Naruto Uzumaki to take it because she knew of her student's infatuation with him.[14] Her personality is unyielding, honest, and simple. She is also portrayed as the "big sister type".[3]

Throughout the series, it has been heavily hinted that Kurenai was romantically involved with fellow jōnin Asuma. The two appeared together in most of their scenes, and the other characters made it a point to note this fact on several occasions. When Kakashi Hatake found the two together at a dumpling shop, he asked if they were on a date, which made Kurenai blush and made an excuse that she was running an errand only.[15]During Asuma's battle with Akatsuki members, Hidan and Kakuzu, Kurenai was often shown wondering about his progress, appearing anxious. When she learned of his death, she fell to her knees in tears and disbelief, and later laid flowers on his grave during his funeral.[16] The truth of their relationship was made clear in Part II when Kurenai revealed that she is pregnant with Asuma's daughter, Mirai Sarutobi. Since becoming a single mother, Kurenai proved very capable, raising Mirai to be very cheerful and responsible.

## Appearance

Kurenai is a fair-skinned woman of slender build. She has long black untamed hair reaching her upper back, and very unique eyes that are red in colour, with an additional ring in them. She wears make-up consisting of red lipstick and purple eye shadow. Her regular outfit consists of a red mesh armour blouse with only the right sleeve visible. Overall, this is very broad material which resembles bandages with a pattern on it similar to those of rose thorns. Her hands and upper thighs are also wrapped in bandages and she wears the Konoha forehead protector and regular shinobi sandals.

In a flashback, it was shown that Kurenai used to wear the standard Konoha shinobi outfit with a flak jacket and a simple sleeveless red outfit underneath it.[13] During her pregnancy, she wore a long, loose fitting maternal dress with a simple blouse underneath and after giving birth she was seen in a simple kimono. As a genin, she wore a similar outfit to the one she wears currently with the signature thorn pattern on it with a simple sash around her waist.[7] These thorns were pink in colour when she was a child, and red when she got older.[17]

Two years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, she returned to her previous slender frame before the pregnancy. She also wears a black-coloured long-sleeved shirt under a burgundy sleeveless shirt with three red-orange stripes on it. She wears a light shade of grey pants with tan brown sandals. Her hair is also shoulder-length. Thirteen years later, Kurenai develops minor wrinkles at the corner of her mouth, and wears a red kimono with a white belt.

## Abilities

As a jōnin, Kurenai is a highly skilled kunoichi. Despite being new to the rank at the time, Kakashi entrusted her and Asuma to face the likes of Akatsuki members, Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki.

### Genjutsu

A genjutsu prodigy, she is considered Konoha's number one genjutsu user,[18]whose skills are said to rival those of even Itachi's.[2] Capable of discerning the truth in an instant and luring enemies to a place far beyond genjutsu,[3] most of her techniques focus around flora; primarily using large trees to bind opponents, as well as flower petals for various purposes. She is able to simultaneously affect multiple opponents with her genjutsu, and, in the anime, revert the effects of genjutsu onto the caster.[19] Itachi, a genjutsu master himself, has even praised her skills.[20]

### Other Skills

Kurenai has shown quick reaction speed, able to defend against Itachi's attack after just recently breaking out of her own reflected genjutsu.[21] In the anime, she can travel through surfaces and sense others by their chakra.[22] She can also seal away a person's kekkei genkai,[11] and enter the subconsciousness of a person to see their "true nature".[23]

## TMNT X Pokemon

Kuranei often teaches the Kunoichis-in-training everything she knows about Genjutsu. During missions, she works with Chloe Montes and Mikoto Fletcher.

## Trivia

* The name "Kurenai" means "crimson" (紅), while her family name "Yūhi" means "evening sun" (夕日).
* Kurenai's red lipstick is, in a way, a pun on her own name. The kanji for "Kurenai" can also be read as "beni", which is a word used for red make-up used traditionally in Japan to colour the lips red.
* In her first appearance in the anime during the Prologue — Land of Waves arc, her dress is red with white sleeves, but every time she is seen after that it's the opposite.
* In later episodes of Part II, she is usually seen with a ring on her left ring finger. It is unclear if this is a wedding ring, an engagement ring, or something else. The ring was first seen while Kurenai was worried about Asuma during his battle with Hidan. After Kurenai is revealed to be pregnant, she is always seen wearing the ring. The ring first appears in the manga after the reveal of her pregnancy.
* During a question and answer session held at Tokyo's Jump Fest '09, Masashi Kishimoto stated that he was thinking of making Kurenai and Asuma's child a girl, which he follows through with.[29]
* Although her eyes are very distinct, they are not a dōjutsu.
* Kurenai is the only one of the four principal sensei (Asuma, Kakashi, Guy, and herself) who doesn't regularly wear a flak jacket; the only two times she is seen wearing one was in a flashback with Hiashi Hyūga and in a scene with her and Asuma. She can also be seen wearing it in *Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja 5* and *Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3*.
* Studio Pierrot's Settei sheets of Kurenai show that she was 123 cm when enrolling in the Academy and 144.4 cm around the time of the Kannabi Bridge incident.
* According to the databook(s):
	+ Her hobby is having evening drinks.
	+ She wants to fight Asuma (first databook) and later she doesn't want to fight anyone (third databook).
	+ Kurenai's favourite foods are shōchū (strong o-sake), vodka and takowasa (octopus and wasabi), her least favourite food is cake.
	+ Kurenai's favourite phrase is "*Glory like a violet blooming a single day*" (菫花一日の栄, *Kinka Ichijutsu no Ei*).
	+ Kurenai has completed 697 official missions in total: 152 D-rank, 158 C-rank, 235 B-rank, 138 A-rank, 14 S-rank.

## Quotes

* (To Hiashi) "*I will be watching over Hinata from now on… but are you sure it's all right? Hinata is a member of the Hyūga main family… working as genin may cause her to be surrounded by death.*"[13]
* (About Hinata) "*Hinata… You used to be a quitter… But you began to try and change yourself. I know better than anyone, the tough training you put yourself through. But you'd always fail on missions, you were weak when it mattered most and quickly lost confidence. But today you're different… That child… I have never… seen her with eyes like that…*"[30]
* (About Hinata) "*Hinata, that's enough… You may have lost but you have changed… Good job…*"[31]
* (To Shikamaru) "*You lost your shōgi partner… you were Asuma's favourite. You must miss him too.*"[32]