𝐄𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐏𝐒𝐄 | madara uchiha

Chapter 23

"Shion-chan! You have a visitor!"

"Huh? Who's visiting our tiny ass farm?"

Dressed in an old, paint splattered white shirt underneath an even older set of overalls that belonged to her grandfather, Shion's face had tanned remarkably in the past week since she had returned to her hometown in Kyushu. Right from her day of arrival, she had headed to work with her grandparents in order to help out with their rice harvest, alongside with a couple of teenagers they had hired for extra help. Now, upon receiving news that she had a surprise guest, Shion wiped her brow and straightened up.

"Who is it?"

As the deliverer of the news, Shion's grandmother merely shrugged as she stood at the back door.

"Uh, a man!"

It was then that one of the hired teenagers, a girl named Hina, came from around the front of the house with a starstruck look in her eyes.

"A very beautiful man!" sighed Hina, clutching her bundles of rice tightly to her chest. "And he looks rich, too!"

Shion's eyes widened as she figured out who her surprise visitor was, but just as she dropped her tools to go and see for herself, she felt something tugging at the back of her legs.

"TAKI!"

On his knees at Shion's feet, the other teenage helper had wrapped his arms around the Nakano's legs and dramatically let out a loud, theatrical wail.

"You didn't tell me you had a boyfriend, Shion-san!" cried Taki, throwing one of his arms over his eyes. "Were my efforts to woo you all for naught?"

"Oh, shut up, Taki!" scolded Shion playfully, poking her tongue out at Taki as she shook him off. "Everyone already knows you have a crush on Hina, stop trying to hide it from her and ask her out already!"

"H-HUH?!"

Shion snickered as an embarrassed Taki went bright red in the face and relinquished her legs from his grip, hastily replying, "Nothing, nothing!" when Hina called out and asked what Shion had said about her. As Shion's grandmother and the two teenagers went back to work, Shion took her time in heading towards the front door. 

With every step she took, she felt her breaths growing shallower and shallower. While she was still very frustrated that Madara had chosen to listen to Misaki's words over her own, there was a part of her that was fervently hoping that he had finally come to his senses. On the other hand, she wasn't going to let him walk away from her without at least giving her an apology, even if the worst came to worst.

Standing at the corner of the house, Shion took a deep breath and stood tall.

"Don't get angry," she said, nodding to herself in encouragement. "Be patient. Alright. Let's go!"

Steeling herself not to get emotional and throw something in Madara's face, Shion rigidly turned around the corner and marched directly to the front door. The Uchiha stood before the door, dressed ever so luxuriously with his three-piece suit, designer shirt and necktie, and signature expensive watch, and turned around upon hearing Shion's approach.

As the Nakano came to a halt before Madara, he humbly bowed his head at her.

"Hello, Shion-chan," said the Uchiha in a meek voice, keeping his eyes locked on the ground.

"Um... hi," replied Shion awkwardly, clearing her throat as she looked at anywhere but Madara. "I wasn't... uh... expecting you."

"I know. I'm sorry for intruding." Madara's bow deepened, prompting Shion to raise an eyebrow at his unusual behaviour. "I'm... sorry."

His final words were so faint that Shion couldn't even make out what he said, and she bluntly stated, "Huh?"

"I'm sorry," repeated Madara with more conviction, his hands flat at his sides as he lowered himself before his lover. "I should have trusted you and Izuna, not Kudo. I let my insecurity get the better of me, and ended up thinking the worst about the two people closest to me. I'm sorry for ever doubting you, and for not listening to you, and for making such a big fuss out of everything. I'm so, so sorry, Shion-chan. I know you're very mad at me, and I understand. I just hope that this won't affect our relationship in the future. Because I really do love you, even if it doesn't feel like it as of lately. I'll do whatever it takes to re-earn your respect, just name it."

Shion frowned as she rubbed her chin, blowing stray strands of hair out of her face as she contemplated Madara's words.

"When do you have to get back to Tokyo?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Whenever you want me to leave. I'll do whatever you want."

An evil smile began to spread across Shion's face as she thought about the rest of the paddies that needed harvesting in the backyard.

"When was the last time you did some good, old fashioned manual labour?"

*

"Wow, Madara-kun! Toshio's clothes fit you perfectly, don't they?"

As the midday sun beat down on the workers in the Nakano paddies, Madara awkwardly laughed as Shion added more and more bundles of rice onto his back. Shion's grandmother, a kindly woman named Yoshiko, beamed at the sight of Shion loading up the Uchiha with rice bundles. She was seemingly unaware of her granddaughter's malignant intentions to use their surprise visitor as a mule, and was just ecstatic with his presence.

They were quite a far distance away from the storehouse, and even though Madara had definitely seen the other two teenagers using wheelbarrows, Shion had insisted that he had to carry his own load on his back. To make it worse, Shion had conveniently turned a blind eye to the fact that Madara's knees had begun shaking with the amount of weight being placed on his back, and continued adding to his discomfort one bundle at a time.

"How kind of you to volunteer and help us, Madara-kun!" exclaimed Yoshiko happily, carrying her husband's water bottle. "Thank you so much for working for free, it really means a lot to our family!"

Madara's face went pale as he was reminded of his unpaid labour, and could only bring himself to nod at Yoshiko.

"... no worries."

"I'll leave you two to it, then! Toshio and I will be moving over there, and once you and the two kids have finished, we can head to the last paddy and get working together! Alright?"

"Got it, baa-chan. Come on, Uchiha. Move it." Shion smacked the rice on Madara's back, pointing forward. "Let's go. If you fall on the path, I'm not helping you up. If you fall back into the paddy, I'll kill you."

"Noted," choked Madara, now truly beginning to feel remorse for his decision to disregard Shion's words in favour of Misaki's fake accusations. "Shion-chan, I'm really s-"

Madara's jaw dropped as he watched Shion skilfully gather her numerous bundles of rice and sling them over her shoulder in one movement, with little difficulty in shouldering the weight. From what he could tell, her load was only a few bundles lighter than his, but even then she didn't look as despondent as he did.

"What the..." Shion raised an eyebrow at the look of shock on Madara's face.

"What the what?"

"Am I really that weak?!"

"Well, if your back were as weak as your trust in me, you would've snapped in half a long time ago. Come on, get moving. Less talking, more walking! We need to clear our area before we can move on!"

Madara groaned as Shion put her nose in the air and walked away from him.

"Shion-chan, I'm sorry!"

"Sorry isn't going to harvest these paddies, Uchiha! I'm still mad at you!"