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Izuna stared at the dish served in front of him with utter disgust. It's Inari Sushi... But with Shirako for the stuffing.
'What kind of hellish combination is this?' Izuna thought to himself.
Frowning, he looked up, only to see Madara forcefully took a bite with some sort of resigned visage. He then witnessed a series of unusual expressions from his respected big brother.
Madara calmly chewed at first, but then he was no longer able to feign indifference as sweats began pouring from his forehead and his face turning pale blue. A difficult swallow could be seen on Madara’s throat.
Sitting across from Izuna’s brother was his sister-in-law - Sakura. Unlike her husband, she remained inexpressive with her eyes shut tight while aggressively trying to stuff herself with food. Izuna couldn’t tell if Sakura actually enjoyed it or not as she had always been an expert at hiding emotions.
'Combining the food he loves and the one he despises, such a vicious revenge, as expected from my sister in law' although feeling dissatisfied with the dinner, Izuna still couldn't help but be awestruck by Sakura's sagacity. “Nii-san has been late for dinners recently, maybe because of that gambling-addicted Senju , no wonder why she got mad.” However…
"Really? You guys got into a fight but decided to punish me as well?" - Izuna finally voiced his opinion on this matter. Discommode was clearly present in his tone as he was involuntarily dragged into the couple's quarrel.
"Just eat your damn dinner, Izuna." - snapped Madara.
"Be grateful that we still have food on the table, Izuna-kun." - Sakura added.
At the moment, they were just like Izuna's parents, the kind of strict Asian parents who occasionally take out frustration on their kids.
'Huh, how are you two so cooperative when it comes to scolding me? Even in the middle of a fight.' Izuna snickered.
"Ain't no way I'm gonna torture my taste buds with this" - Izuna forced himself into making a fake smile - "I'm gonna head out to buy some Taiyaki."
"Both of you better be reconciled before I get home, okay?" - Were his last words before closing the door, leaving Madara and Sakura speechless plus annoyed behind.
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A while later, Izuna finally returned to the Uchiha's residence, holding a paper bag full of assorted sweets in his arms. He hummed a tune and leisurely walked each step. Sugar did such a good job in improving his mood. 'On the bright side, they did give a rare opportunity to have taiyaki for dinner'
Speaking of the devil…
From not so far away, a pair of lovebirds gradually came into Izuna’s sight. The tense atmosphere surrounding them a while ago had vanished, replaced by a lovey-dovey one.
“Nii-san, Sakura-san~” After a moment of silent pondering, curiosity finally took over, Izuna waved his hand to catch their attention.
“Izuna, you’re back” Madara greeted him first. “Eating that much sweets isn’t good for your health, you know?” followed by Sakura’s mild reproof, which rubbed Izuna up the wrong way even though he understood her good intention.
'Their spirits seem to have lightened a lot, what happen-' A realization struck him as his eyes suddenly caught sight of red bite marks on Sakura’s neck. With a keener observation, sweats were also clearly visible on both of them, and judging by the way Sakura was glowing…
“Oh so you two made up after making out huh?” Izuna said with the most possible deadpan tone.
“I-it is not like that!” Sakura was baffled by Izuna’s bold statement, crimson painted on her cheeks.
“That’s right, about three rounds before you came back, could have been more though.” While Madara just flat out agreed with him, even appearing to be proud of his so-called achievement.
Their contradicting reactions made Izuna want to laugh, however he held it back and maintained his poker face.
“Welp, knowing you guys, I should have seen this coming.” Scratching his head, Izuna turned around and headed back to his room. “Sorry for interrupting your business, bye.”
“Wait, Izuna-kun-“ Before Sakura could finish her explanation, Izuna was nowhere to be seen, as expected of a genius shinobi.
“Just let him be, Sakura” Madara placed one hand on Sakura’s shoulder and showed her an understanding smile. But to Sakura, his face looked more punchable than ever.
“How could you blatantly admit such a thing, you idiot!” Sakura started giving Madara a good amount of small punches, they were hard enough to show that she was angry but not powerful enough to cause damage.
“Hey! We just reconciled, don’t start another fight, besides, is there any point in hiding what he already knew?” Madara raised an arm for self defense while trying to reason with his hot-head wife.
The couple began to bicker again, as if this was their love language.
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Some days later, in Izuna’s room
“…And then she got furious and told me to stuff the chili flavored animitsu up to my ass.” Madara was lying on the mattress with one hand supporting his head. It’s weird for the man to be in his brother’s room instead of being with his wife this late.
'Here we go again' Izuna thought as he flipped a page of paper. The young man purposely ignored his brother’s nonstop complaints
“I didn’t utter a single word when she tried to feed me inari sushi stuffed with shirako, so why did she throw a tantrum when I did something similar?”
“Did you expect her to thank you then?” - Izuna replied evenly, his eyes still glued on the book.
“So long story short, you pulled your silly prank for no reason, it ticked Sakura-san off, she kicked you out of your bedroom, and now you are here bothering me.” Izuna got to the root of the problem in one sentence.
Madara averted his gaze, clearly avoiding his brother’s judgemental eyes. - “Don’t be so unsupportive, Izuna.” And then, with a smirk, Madara began to reminisce about Izuna's cringeworthy childhood memories. - “When you was just a little boy who easily got frightened by the lightning, your big brother would always let you sleep in his futon and reassure you-“
“One more word and I will kick you out as well, nii-san.” Izuna’s teeth-gritting grin didn’t manage to cover his anger well, he loved his big brother so much but sometimes the man could be such a hassle to handle.
“Alright, go to sleep, I will talk you out of this with Sakura-san tomorrow.”
“I know I could always be counting on you lil brother.” Madara pulled up the blanket, making himself comfy.
“Sure you do.”
After a sigh, Izuna started to come up with excuses to defend Madara’s action, praying that Sakura would buy it. He totally did not expect this outcome when he played the matchmaker for them back then.