"The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry"
-Proverb

xxx

Minato fiddled with the thin wooden band that encircled his finger, unused to its weight. He was tempted to do the same to his newly-pierced ear, but the lingering pain warned him of the potential consequences. Sighing, the blond jonin picked up the file, flipping through its pages again.

Shima Uzumaki. The file had been lying on his table when Minato woke up this morning, its innocent appearance belying the fact that it hadn't been there when he'd stumbled to bed the night prior. Ordinarily, he'd suspect Kushina. She was normally more direct, but being surprised by a cousin's existence –however distant –could've easily been enough to make her resort to more circumspect methods. Especially if the Hokage had declared the boy's existence a secret.

Of course, the pristine and untouched state of Minato's perimeter seals and alert matrices suggested that one of the Anbu agents –Wolf, more than likely –had been the one to deliver the file. Black ops agents, by necessity, always have a... fluid definition of privacy. The bastards. Minato glared at the script that lined his walls. He'd have to go over them with Kushina again.

Minato skimmed through the file for the third time that day, and was disheartened to see that he hadn't misremembered any of the facts held within; the Academy's memorization techniques having preserved the information well. The hospital report detailed a highly developed chakra system that, coupled with the standard Uzumaki markers, meant that Shima currently had more accessible chakra than most genin –despite his age. Of course, the fact that a six year old had active chakra coils at all meant that someone had ignored the risks inherent in manipulating chakra at a young age.

Minato's lips pressed firmly into a line. Training chakra was always dangerous, especially when just starting out. And the younger a ninja was when he began, the greater the risk that the child would, at best, cripple himself for life. Minato would never openly question the Third Hokage, at least –not when he wasn't hidden behind three layers of apparently useless fuuinjutsu –but training children as young as they had been? Minato couldn't think of anyone who agreed with the wartime policies.

Well. Save for Orochimaru, but even he had initially objected to it –in his own way.

Minato flipped to the next page, staring blankly at the words as he contemplated the file before him. Shima Uzumaki. Class B refugee, classified parentage, marked intelligence, notable maturity, currently in an emotionally vulnerable state with no outward signs of mental instability. Highly skilled for his age group, and projected not to blend well with children.

Minato stared blankly at the boy's picture. Even sketched in black and white, the dark bags under Shima's vacant eyes were prominent, detailing reams and volumes of the boy's emotional state. His expression was an unsteady sort of blankness, one that warned of strong, raging emotions that were kept in tight grip, rather than Kakashi's natural rationality.

Merging the two would be difficult –the two had too strong of personalities for that not to happen. Doable, maybe, but not easily. Shima was currently emotionally fragile in a way that Kakashi had never been before, and his apprentice was too young to know that such a vulnerability wasn't a weakness to be ashamed of. No, definitely not easily. And there would be repercussions for both children. Heavy ones.

Not for the first time, Minato quietly lamented Kakashi's age. Too young in years to understand, too old in mind to be swayed. Minato closed the file with a frustrated clap of his hands and tossed it back on the table. In time, Kakashi could learn that Shima's vulnerability wasn't a weakness, but was, instead, a wound. In time. Time that Shima might not have.

Minato leaned back on his couch, letting his mind turn over the headache that was Shima Uzumaki. Too young for jonin to give a second glance at, too politically interesting to seamlessly fit into a new family, and too smart to connect with most children his age. The boy's skill in fuuinjutsu meant that he'd likely end up in the Scribe Corps. And if Shima was given the choice between that or the Academy, then the boy would probably chain himself to the desk and thank the Hokage for the opportunity.

After all, boy's origins might be blacked out, but it was clear from his "refugee" status that Shima hadn't been raised in Leaf and, therefore, wouldn't know how the Academy's workarounds functioned. And the prodigies who didn't know the workarounds usually ended up…

Minato vigorously ran his hands across his face, wincing as he brushed his new earring, then smiling at the reason behind it. Kushina. Wait. Kushina knew about her cousin, right? Minato snapped back up and, with renewed purpose, flipped open the file before confirming what he already knew. They'd met and, apparently, had gotten along well enough that the report mentioned it.

Minato felt a genuine smile grace his face, a rare occurrence these days. Kushina, new as she was to the jonin ranks, hadn't been made to take on a genin team or an apprentice –the current disquiet between Leaf and Grass meant that most "unchained" jonin were likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future. But Shima was an Uzumaki, and Kushina wasn't likely to be fielded unless it was as a last resort. It'd be possible.

An idle handsign and the file became scattered ash. Minato left his small cottage and began walking towards the Hatake home, his mind racing with plans and plots, examining them from every possible angle, predicting problems and –if they were minor –working around them, or discarding entire plans in favor of other ones –if they were not.

Yes. Yes, Minato could make this work. It'd take up three of his stored favors, two of his personal seals, and an apple, but he could do it. Besides, what better wedding gift than to help his wife get closer to what little family she had left?

xxx

I have a migraine and the caffeine from my pain medicine is keeping me awake. So, naturally, instead of doing coursework that's suddenly been thrust online, or doing something that's actually productive, I had a plotbunny that just had to be fleshed out.

Oh, I'll also probably be phasing out the Japanese in the story, going forward. The "Kaa-san"s will be shifted to"mom/mother," for example, partly because Shima's acclimated to the language of the Elemental Nations, and partly also because adding words from a language I'm not fluent in creates a "speedbump" in the narrative flow when I write, making what I write to be, somehow, of even lower quality.

And this is the last of the "updated" chapters. Updates will continue to be sporadic due to the pandemic. Have fun, be safe, wash your hands.