Kurenai Yūhi

is a jōnin-level kunoichi from Konohagakure. She is also the leader of Team Kurenai, which consists of: Hinata Hyūga, Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru.

Background
Kurenai graduated from the Academy at the age of 9, took the Chūnin Exams and became a chūnin at the age of 13, and only became a jōnin shortly before the start of the series. While in her youth, the Nine-Tails attacked Konoha and she, alongside Kakashi, Guy and Asuma were amongst a group of younger ninja that wanted to help in the effort to repel the beast, but the group was barred by the older shinobi, one of which was her own father, from participating. They told them that they had to be protected in order to ensure another generation would come about, so that they can pass on the Will of Fire.

Because of Kurenai's natural talent for genjutsu, the Third Hokage tasked Kurenai with helping to train Yakumo Kurama, another talented genjutsu user who longed to be a ninja. However, because Yakumo couldn't control her illusions and thus endangered those around her, Kurenai had to seal away her ninja abilities, in turn keeping her from ever becoming a shinobi.

Personality
Kurenai is a caring and brave woman. She shows great care and concern towards her students and takes a vested interest in their growth, especially in regards to Hinata 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 to take it because she knew of her student's infatuation with him. . Her personality is unyielding, honest, and simple. She is also portrayed as the "big sister type".

It has been heavily hinted that Kurenai was romantically involved with fellow jōnin Asuma Sarutobi. 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. 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 disbelief, and later laid flowers on his grave during his funeral. The truth of their relationship was made clear in Part II when Kurenai revealed that she is pregnant with Asuma's child.

Appearance
Kurenai is a kunoichi with long and black, shoulder-length untamed hair, and very unique eyes that are red in colour, with an additional ring in them similar to the Rinnegan, albeit less ripples. 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. Over 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. 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.

Genjutsu
The full extent of Kurenai's abilities are predominantly unknown. But, her skill with genjutsu are so vast that they are said to rival even those of Itachi Uchiha. Most of her techniques focus around flora; primarily using large trees to bind opponents as well as flower petals for various reasons. She is also able to simultaneously affect multiple opponents with her techniques, as seen during her fight with Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi Uchiha. Itachi, a genjutsu master himself, has also praised her skills. Furthermore, she could revert the effects of genjutsu to the caster.

Other Abilities
In an anime, it was shown that she is even able to enter the subconscious of a person to see their true nature. She was also seen using her hair to cover her entire body, allowing her to freely travel through objects by seemingly merging with them. She also seems to be very proficient at using fūinjutsu as seen when she used the Evil Sealing Method to seal Yakumo's kekkei genkai.

Chūnin Exam Arc
During the Chūnin Exams, Kurenai watched her pupils from the sidelines. After Shino's battle, she commented on how it suddenly became cold in the room, in reference to his rather merciless defeat of Zaku Abumi. During Kiba's fight with Naruto, she thought to herself (and commented to Kakashi) that Naruto couldn't possibly beat Kiba, only to be surprised again and again as Naruto took everything Kiba threw at him, and finally defeated her student. She bore Naruto no ill will after this and even acknowledged him as a strong opponent. During Hinata's fight with her cousin, Neji Hyūga, she remembered the terrible relationship Hinata had with her father. She also noted the stark contrast between the current Hinata, who refused to give up, and the former Hinata, who would give up easily. When Neji was sent into a blind rage and tried to kill Hinata, Kurenai helped stop him along with Kakashi, Guy and Hayate.

In the one month interval after the preliminaries she was seen along with Kiba training Shino in preparation for the final rounds. At the finals she sat next to Asuma, surprised that Naruto was able to call upon the Nine-Tails' chakra to pull off a victory over Neji, and doubted that Shikamaru had a strategy to win over Temari. Although the former decided to quit, the skills he had shown during the match made Kurenai think that he may have the qualities of a chūnin.

Invasion of Konoha Arc
After watching the final round matches a month later, Kurenai repelled the genjutsu that fell over the stadium and assisted with the village's defence against invading Suna and Oto ninja during the invasion of Konoha. She later attended the Third Hokage's funeral.

Search for Tsunade Arc
Soon after Konoha proved successful in defending the village, Kurenai and Asuma discovered that the Akatsuki members, Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki, had infiltrated the village. The two pairs engaged each other in battle, but Itachi proved to be easily capable of turning Kurenai's genjutsu against her. Before she and Asuma could be finished off, Kakashi arrived to save them, only to be caught in Itachi's Tsukuyomi, and was then saved by Might Guy.

Mizuki Strikes Back Arc
In the anime, Asuma and Kurenai were dispatched by Fifth Hokage Tsunade to bring the criminal chūnin Mizuki in for questioning, regarding his suspected involvement with Orochimaru. The pair arrived at the Leaf Village Maximum Security Prison, only to be greeted by a swarm of released inmates, including the Legendary Stupid Brothers Fūjin and Raijin. Outnumbered, the two were beaten into unconsciousness, and were quickly rushed to the Leaf Village hospital for medical treatment.

Kurama Clan Arc
Yakumo resurfaced several years after Kurenai had sealed away her kekkei genkai, which ultimately proved unsuccessful. After Yakumo created the illusion of the Academy being struck by lightning (something everyone believed to have actually happened), Kurenai took a temporary leave from Team 8 so that she could deal with the problem. Naruto confronted her about her involvement with Yakumo, but she simply used a genjutsu on him to keep him occupied.

As she approached Yakumo's cabin, Kurenai appeared to be trapped in a rebel's genjutsu. In actuality, she had attacked her attacker in a genjutsu. She discovered that these attackers were in fact Kurama clan members, who were intent on kidnapping Yakumo. From this point, she and the opposing ninja basically fought with nothing but pure genjutsu technique, such as the Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death and the String Bean Binding Illusion. Kurenai ended up successful until the final encounter, where she was caught and couldn't escape from his genjutsu, and so she took a kunai and stabbed herself in the shoulder to break out and used Genjutsu: Flower Petal Escape to trap him in her own genjutsu. But he saw the blood from her wound and managed to hit her with a shuriken.

Kurenai was saved by the arrival of her team, along with Naruto, Sakura, and Might Guy. Later, when explaining to Team 8 the reasons for her departure, she claimed that the village "doesn't need any genjutsu users other than herself". This was her supposed reason for sealing Yakumo's abilities, but Shino recognized that she was lying. Yakumo, on the other hand, believed Kurenai did so in order to eventually wipe out the Kurama clan. She trapped her former sensei, Naruto, Sakura, and Team 8 in a genjutsu-created replica of the village which appeared to have been ravaged by war. Unkai was also in the illusion. Unkai, concerned by the powers Yakumo had, and her continually degrading mental state as a result of being unable to control them, freed Naruto from the illusion so that he could kill Yakumo. Everyone else was freed as well, except for Kurenai. Yakumo kept her trapped in the illusion in the hopes of getting revenge and answers about her past.

Naruto and the others headed back to the mountain villa and Naruto re-entered Yakumo's genjutsu world to help Kurenai. Yakumo learned that a monster named Ido that lived within her subconscious mind was the one who killed her parents. With Kurenai's help, she overcame the monster in her heart and freed Kurenai from her genjutsu. With her final mission from the Third Hokage completed, Kurenai reassigned herself as the jōnin leader of Team 8.

Part II
Kurenai appears regularly during and following Asuma's battle with Akatsuki. When told of Asuma's death, Kurenai was devastated. After Shikamaru avenged Asuma's death by defeating Hidan, he started taking care of Kurenai for Asuma's sake (although she has been known to insist he does not need to do so every day). He also vowed to someday make their child his student. Because of her pregnancy, Team 8 has been led by other jōnin during its missions.

Hidan and Kakuzu Arc
At the hospital, Asuma wanted to tell Kakashi something. But before he can say anything, Kurenai enters and Asuma takes his leave, stating he'll tell Kakashi later. Later, as Asuma and his team go off to track down Hidan and Kakuzu, he looks on at an apartment window and tells his team to move out. Inside, it's revealed that it's Kurenai's apartment. She senses something, but when she turns to look out the window, Asuma and his team are gone. As Kurenai is watering flowers that were given to her by Asuma, one of the petals falls off its stem, and she is hit with an ill omen about Asuma.

As Shikamaru returns, he tells her the grim news of Asuma. Kurenai stares on in shock and then collapses to her knees devastated, and during Asuma's funeral, Kurenai is holding flowers. After Shikamaru avenges Asuma's death by defeating Hidan, he finds her at Asuma's grave. Kurenai asks him if he'll be lonely now that his shōgi partner is gone. Shikamaru states Asuma taught him both important and stupid stuff. He reflects that he brushed off responsibility and whined when he was young, and Asuma would have to protect him. He was the coolest adult he knew, and he tells Kurenai, when she has her baby, he'll help protect it as a cool adult too. Kurenai holds her stomach and smiles.

Invasion of Pain Arc
To help Naruto cope with Jiraiya's death, Shikamaru took him to the hospital where Kurenai was just leaving and explained her pregnancy to Naruto (because Naruto believed she had gotten fat). Kurenai insisted to Shikamaru that he does not need to check on her every time she goes to the hospital, but Shikamaru said he couldn't help it; Asuma told him to watch over her and the child.

In the anime, during Pain's invasion of Konoha, Kurenai was wondering what was happening and looked outside. Shikamaru then came to ensure her safety. Pain's summon, a Giant Centipede, appeared. Shikamaru told her to move back while he took care of the summon, killing it with his shadow. He then told her of how he couldn't face Asuma if something happened to her and the baby and advised her to go to the evacuation centre through the underground passage. She was then seen going to the evacuation centre falling in line with many other people.

Shinobi World War Arc
As Shikamaru remembers the "king" Asuma entrusted him with, he thinks of Kurenai and his sensei's newborn child.

Naruto: Shippūden the Movie
Kurenai made a small cameo before Team 7 was being called up, Team 8, except Shino, were seen running through the streets.

Trivia

 * "Kurenai" means "crimson", and "Yūhi" means "evening sun".
 * 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 her dress is red with white sleeves but every time she is seen after that it's the opposite.
 * After Kurenai was revealed to be pregnant, she is seen with a ring on her finger. It is unclear if this is a wedding ring, an engagement ring, or something else.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * According to the Naruto databook:
 * 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.
 * 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."
 * (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…"
 * (About Hinata) "Hinata, that's enough… You may have lost but you have changed… Good job…"
 * (To Shikamaru) "You lost your shōgi partner… you were Asuma's favourite. You must miss him too."