"…What?"
Kurenai instinctively took half a step back.
The color drained from her face, leaving behind a pallor of pure disbelief.
Absurd.
Utterly absurd.
She was an elite Jonin of Konoha. The leader of Team Eight.
And yet the self-proclaimed Emperor of the Land of Fire had just declared—before her own students—that she was his runaway concubine?
"Pfft—!"
Kiba's laugh burst out at the worst possible moment, shattering the suffocating silence. He scratched the back of his head, forcing a dry grin.
"Haha… Your Majesty sure has a sense of humor!"
"There are plenty of people with the same name."
"You must be looking for another Yuhi Kurenai, right?"
He glanced at her quickly, hoping she would play along.
But Kurenai did not respond.
Her eyes were locked on Di Yan.
A chill crawled slowly up her spine.
Something was wrong.
Terribly wrong.
That look in his eyes…
There was no humor in it.
It was possession. Cold appraisal. And a warped excitement—as if something he once owned had finally returned to him.
Hinata's Byakugan was already active.
She sensed the change in his chakra first.
It was deep. Viscous. Saturated with heavy negative emotion.
Her body trembled involuntarily.
Even Shino's sunglasses could not conceal the tension beneath them. Countless kikaichu insects stirred violently inside his cloak, buzzing in restless alarm.
They had detected extreme danger.
"Your Majesty,"
Kurenai forced her turbulent emotions down. A faint tremor slipped into her voice despite her effort.
"This is not amusing. I am a shinobi of Konoha—Yuhi Kurenai."
"I am here under the Hokage's orders. Please… refrain from such jokes."
"Kindly state the true objective of this mission."
She straightened her back, drawing a clear line between them.
"Refrain?"
Di Yan laughed softly.
The sound echoed strangely through the vast hall.
He rose from the imperial throne.
His black robe, embroidered with golden dragons, shimmered under the light as it flowed with his movement.
"Red, you've always been so stubborn."
The tone was disturbingly intimate.
As though he were scolding a lover.
"If I say you are my concubine, then you are."
"What? Do you intend to defy me? I am the Emperor of the Land of Fire."
His voice sharpened, heavy with authority.
"As a shinobi of Konoha, I obey only the Hokage!"
Kurenai's chakra began surging uncontrollably through her system.
Her fingers subtly formed the preliminary seal for genjutsu.
"The Hokage will not tolerate reckless behavior from the Daimyo," she continued firmly. "Your Majesty, please conduct yourself with restraint. Otherwise—"
"Otherwise what?"
The smile vanished from Di Yan's face.
What replaced it was cold enough to freeze the air.
He stepped forward.
It was only a single step.
Yet it felt as though he had crossed the very space between them in an instant, an overwhelming pressure crashing down like a tidal wave.
"Otherwise you will use those… charming genjutsu of yours against your 'master'?"
At that precise moment—
His eyes changed.
The deep night-like pupils darkened.
Then—
Scarlet.
A sinister red erupted within them, as though forged from condensed malice itself.
The crimson swallowed his original eye color like infernal flames consuming the sky.
And within that red—
Black tomoe spun violently.
Twisting.
Reshaping.
Reforming.
Kurenai's heart felt as though a frozen hand had clenched around it.
That pattern—
She had seen it before.
The Sharingan.
No—
The Mangekyo Sharingan.
Years ago, when Itachi Uchiha returned to Konoha, she had faced those eyes.
She, who prided herself as a master of genjutsu, had been utterly defeated.
"Sh-Sharingan?!" Kiba shouted, unable to contain himself.
Akamaru let out a pitiful whine, tail tucked tightly as it nearly collapsed from fear.
"That's impossible… the Uchiha clan—"
Through her Byakugan, Hinata saw the chakra radiating from those Mangekyo eyes.
It resembled a dark sun—dense, oppressive, devouring.
The pressure was so overwhelming she nearly lost focus, her body swaying.
Shino's voice turned hoarse.
"Sharingan… confirmed… high threat."
His kikaichu recoiled instinctively, retreating deep within his body.
Understanding dawned in his mind.
The deaths of the thirty-six heirs.
Perhaps they had never been coincidence.
The so-called Emperor standing before them was no ordinary man.
He was something else entirely.
Kurenai's face had turned ashen.
"You… are you of the Uchiha clan?"
"Who said only an Uchiha can possess the Sharingan?"
Di Yan's voice lowered.
Cold. Final.
Now those rotating Mangekyo locked onto her completely.
"My Red."
"You should come home."
"And fulfill your role… as my concubine."
The air froze.
But Kurenai's response proved why she was an elite Jonin.
The instant those Mangekyo appeared—
Her survival instincts detonated.
Chakra surged through every pathway in her body. Her hands flashed through seals with flawless precision.
"Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death!"
A powerful hybrid genjutsu—defensive and restraining in nature—took shape instantly.
Invisible mental energy surged forward like binding vines, attempting to entangle and disrupt Di Yan's consciousness.
Even one second of delay would be enough.
But—
Before her chakra fully released—
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Three dull impacts echoed behind her.
Kurenai's head snapped around.
Her pupils shrank to pinpoints.
Hinata Hyuga.
Kiba Inuzuka.
Shino Aburame.
All three had collapsed.
Their bodies lay limp on the cold palace floor.
Eyes closed. Breathing steady.
Deeply unconscious.
There had been no resistance.
No counterattack.
Not even a moment.
Akamaru curled beside Kiba, letting out a faint whimper before falling still.
Kurenai's blood ran cold.
He hadn't even looked at them.
Not once.
Was it merely—
A thought?