When she was younger, Uzumaki Shun wanted to be a ninja. Her clan was renowned around the Elemental Countries for their fūinjutsu, and it was later a prized symbol of Uzushiogakure. So she excelled in her calligraphy classes and she became the most unpredictable and talented seal master she could be.

When it got to the point where her uncle, Ashina-sama, had to teach her sealing she was overjoyed. She had long since surpassed her previous sensei, so that had to be impressive, right?

Wrong.

When the subject was broached, Ashina-sama didn't even take a second to deny her.

"After all, what would happen if Mito perished? I can't have my heirs killed in action."

Shun wasn't sure what gave her the courage to say her next words, nor did she regret them. "Of course not, we'll only be killed by our weakness and our incompetence."

The painful slap to the cheek did little to hide her scorn. What use was a Clan Head that wasn't taught the basics beyond chakra control? She had no jutsu, only time exhaustive skill in fūinjutsu.

Fūinjutsu was great, yes, but it was also supplementive to most shinobi. It wasn't meant for offensive fighting. It was meant for protection.

Shun lost favor with Ashina-sama that day. She was uncouth for a female and did not know her place within the shinobi world, he said.

Shun was still surprised at the hypocrisy that a man willing to pass down his title to his own daughter could emit.

Then again, the hypocrisy soon began to make sense. Uzushiogakure was founded and based after Konohagakure and it was little time before peace and friendship treaties were being exchanged. The Uzumaki clan had long been allies of the Senju, after all.

It came as little surprise when Ashina-sama offered Mito to the Shodaime Hokage like a slab of meat.

Shun's arranged marriage came soon after.

Ashina-sama wanted sons. He wanted heirs to replace his daughter and niece with. They were little more than brood mares in his humble opinion. Women weren't meant to lead, after all.

Shun slit her first husband's throat with little remorse.

It happened again and again, some men trying to force themselves upon her - spouting about upholding her wifely duties.

The suitors only stopped when her widow status reached outstanding numbers and no more takers would come forth. Ashina-sama was furious, Shun was blood-stained and victorious.

When Mito birthed a daughter and the daughter birthed a daughter, Ashina-sama died with no 'suitable' heir. Shun took the reigns of Uzushiogakure and assigned herself her first Jonin-sensei.

When Iwa and Kiri later invaded at the beginning of the Third Shinobi War, Shun was old. She was old and barely had the skill of a Chunin. Too late, Hotaru-sensei had said. Puberty had left her body perpetually weak, more along the lines of civilians than the chakra-strengthened forms of shinobi, and she would never attain the skill she could have achieved.

Her fūinjutsu, though, was where she earned the title of Nidaime Uzukage.

She held the battlements for a month while her people fought. She withheld the siege while they died and her Genin ushered the fleeing civilians onto what remained of their ships. The Navy Guard, once a proud and extensive section of their village, were decimated to two captains and a handful of deckhands. It would suffice.

As Uzushio's citizens fled, Shun held the barriers. She kept the protective maelstroms and volatile and fierce and the raging winds directed against the invading fleet.

When her right hand - because Sugitani Tsubasa may have been a bastard but he had been by her side since childhood - sensed their boats docking along the coast of Hot Springs Country, she stopped. Her chakra (large, so large, the only thing she could properly train and expand) switched roles.

Protected was abandoned for pain.

Fūinjutsu was supplemental, yes, and it was usually used to safeguard whatever object was deemed important. However fūinjutsu was also as unpredictable as Uzushio's riptides, and even a tiny mistake could rip the sealing matrix to shreds (and most of the surrounding area along with it). It had been a mistake that created the final safeguard Uzushiogakure boasted. Their greatest protection had been the product of two kids experimenting with an explosive tag.

Uzushiogakure had fallen, her people scattered, and Shun faced the approaching armada with a bloodthirsty grin.

Yes, she was female. Yes, she was Uzumaki Shun-hime, niece of the Shodaime Uzukage Uzumaki Ashina. Yes, she had become the Nidaime Uzukage. Yes, she was the Red Widow and yes, she was dying a virgin.

Uzumaki Shun was many things, but first and foremost she lived to defy her uncle.

"Your mother didn't amount to much of a ninja, so what hope do you have?"

Cheek still stinging in pain, Uzumaki Shun's teal eyes glared straight into those of her uncle's. "I'll show you my hope."

"I'll show you my conviction." The Nidaime Uzukage whispered, hands speeding through the most important sequence of hand signs she knew.

One last glance with Tsubasa (teal against warm hazel, just as that first day when they were four), and the final two Uzushiogakure island inhabitants glared at the incoming shinobi. Shun was overjoyed at the sight of that bastard Ōnoki fleeing from the glowing light of her island.

Then the island was gone, and so was she.

In Iwagakure's history books, an entire chapter was dedicated to the Uzushio Siege. A quote from their esteemed Sandaime Tsuchikage was boldly displayed at the end of the manuscript.

"That Nidaime was always such a brat. Ashina tried to tame her into a suitable wife, so she became the Red Widow. We tried to tame that damn island of hers, so she blasted it to bits. For such a pain in the ass, she sure was impressive."