Kurenai Yūhi

- Kurenai as a child. - Kurenai in Part I. - Kurenai upon retiring. 1/3 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. 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. These thorns were pink in colour when she was a child, and red when she got older. 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.

As a child, Kurenai met Asuma Sarutobi during the Academy entrance ceremony where the two quickly became friends. She graduated at age 9. In the anime, during the Chūnin Exams, Kurenai was placed in a team with Asuma and Raidō Namiashi. She later was cheering for her classmates during the third round of the Chūnin Exams. Eventually becoming a chūnin at age 13, Kurenai became a jōnin shortly before Team 8 was formed. During the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's Attack, Kurenai, Kakashi, Asuma and Guy were amongst the young ninja that wanted to help in repelling the beast, but the group was barred from participating by the older shinobi, one of whom was her own father. Though she protested greatly about this, her father told her that this wasn't war but an internal village issue and as they were shinobi, their lives were brief. In addition, her father told her that due to her being a woman, he wanted her to live long enough to have children that would inherit the Will of Fire. In the anime, 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, preventing her from ever becoming a shinobi. About twelve years after the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's Attack, seeing her classmate fall into deeper self-pity from losing Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara, Kurenai, along with Might Guy and Asuma decided to speak with the Third Hokage, voicing their disapproval of Kakashi being in Anbu with such bitterness burdening him, and suggested instead that he be re-assigned as a jōnin sensei in the hopes of restoring Kakashi's kindness. At some point in time, Kurenai visited the Hyūga estate and took on Hinata on as her charge. She asked Hiashi whether he was certain about his decision to have his daughter join the regular forces, although he promptly dismissed her, stating that the Hyūga clan had no place for the weak.