Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan, closed his eyes, and leaned back against the wall, his mind going through what he saw in efficiency rarely needed for his mind.
Her figure, the outlines, the way her chest fell and rose each time she breathed, her thigh, the faint partings of her lips, and the way her fingers twitched and moved–replayed in exact details.
Ada soon returned, her hair still wet and her smell fresh, her dirty clothes were bundled in one hand.
She walked to his side, put them aside and took a seat beside him.
She smiled and turned to him seeing his eyes closed, and nudged him a little passing him a bowl filled with chicken stew and rice.
"I usually cook only for myself, but I'm pretty confident it tastes good; try it." Sasuke nodded and started eating in silence.
After a few spoons, he put down the bowl and turned to her.
"The first three words were easy to guess, but the last one though... I'm still not sure, so Lady Bait, which one? Was it •Red• or •Death•?"
Ada froze mid-movement; her thigh involuntarily twitched a little causing her some pain.
She couldn't believe what she heard, but she didn't show any expression on her face as she turned to him, appearing confused.
"Excuse me?"
"You know what I'm talking about, so last chance, which one?
"You are misunderstanding it, Sasuke. I really didn't—aw!" She flinched with a sharp intake as Sasuke's palm squeezed a spot on her thigh; he pressed further and removed his hand, seeing the faint smear of blood through her pants..
"Death, it wasn't a threat; it read backward." Ada swatted his hand away and chuckled from the sheer hopelessness she felt.
She was sure there were no cameras there and that she was the first to use that room, so how did he know?.
Sasuke nodded, finally getting the full piece. "So...a message, to whom?"
"Someone," Ada just took her bowl and continued eating her meal, not believing this man's actions.
"You keep doing things that aren't welcome, and you expect a different result?" Sasuke turned to his bowl and asked ignoring her angry face
"Why did you go so far as to injure your thigh with your own nails just to draw blood and use it to write that coded message? I don't care if it's some threat. Again, that message was meant for whom? I'm asking you kindly."
He munched and turned her way as he saw her putting her bowl down with force as she turned to look back at him. "You are really a jerk sometimes, you know that?"
"Not a new diagnosis; stop playing the victim and speak."
"It was a warning message. I was being on your side, injuring my skin so that an asshole like you wouldn't find more troubles."
Ada stood and walked to stand in front of him. "What? Are you going to kill me for talking back to you? Go on, hotshot, do it" and she spread her hands daring him; she was done with this shit...
Sasuke chuckled hearing that as he looked up at her eyes.
"Spy stuff aside, you would've made a good actress, you know that? But yet again, I can see when someone does that. Name, Ada, stop trying to rile me up so that we can change the subject to me beating you for real."
Ada deflated, leaning forward and muttered seeing the harmless smile on his face. "I hate you."
"Mutual feelings." He tilted his head sidway and she took her seat, still sulking.
"Tch, it's for someone I know, a woman who is stubborn and a bigger pain than me... I know how she thinks, and that was a warning for her not to try anything against your base and people. A thank you would be appreciated." She snorted faking a pitiful pout.
"Damn, lady, you are really perfecting your victim role." Sasuke turned to her, abd smirked seeing the frown on her face.
Ada swore in a low voice, hearing as the man practically had her intentions bared naked.
"So, all of that was you telling her she will die if she tries something against the base. Haku is there, and you know that. In the end, you don't want her dead...gotta say, you are really a sneaky one." He patted her head as if a teacher approving of his student's craftiness and retracted his hand before she could swat it.
"You know, for someone pretending he didn't care about me, you seem to know me too well, unlike what your words say. Come to think...this is our first night together. Excited?" She stretched her hands up smirking as she knew he was a boobies man.
"Happy to see your amazing imagination still working same as before...why do you need her alive, though? I'm curious, who is this woman?"
And Ada breathed in frustration recalling the figure of the woman he asked about, she told him with a little shrug.
"A woman I once trusted," she said tapping the spoon absentmindedly, "She's been trying to contact me for months… stubborn as hell. If she ever tried to find me, that message was meant for her. I left some others scattered around Atlanta before meeting you."
"Why risk exposure for a message no one may ever read?"
He asked curiously, This house isn't a place anyone sane would stumble across, it was a damn cottage amidst the forest.
Thus, leaving such an important message in a random house seemed inefficient to him.
Ada looked at Sasuke as if telling him how offended she felt by that question.
"First, Mr. Nojokes, this is the only place you let me go without surveillance; of course I'll use my only chance."
"Not the first" he pointed out.
"I peed behind the car because there were many walkers in the woods who didn't let me take a damn squat; that doesn't count." She shoots him a blank look, recalling that unpleasant experience.
"Not my problem, so?"
Ada sighed and briefed him in.
"She's not •anyone•, and she's not sane," Ada said dryly. "She's stubborn enough to chase demons through hell if she thinks they owe her something."
Sasuke tilted his head. "And you owe her?"
Ada's lips twitched; the question alone made her irritated. "She owes me."
Her eyes followed the stick he threw to the flames and clarified to him. "We traded once. Data for samples. She got what she wanted—proof of the organization's bioweapons that were mutating beyond control. I was supposed to get the other half of the exchange: information on their new test subjects in the East. But she vanished before we could finish the deal. That was two weeks after the breakout."
"So you left her a message," Sasuke summarized, "In blood, on your abandoned shirt's inner seams that you left in that room—telling her not to come here."
Ada nodded once. "Because if she did… she'd die. That masked girl will kill her if she tries her madness; am I wrong?"
Sasuke nodded hearing that. "Not if she falls into my hands first."
"You wouldn't kill her," Ada explained seeing his questioning look, "because she'd interest you. Just like I do."
There was no flirtation in her tone now; that was simply her honest thought.
Sasuke seemed to be a crazy-woman magnet; the big chance is... She would catch his interest.
Though even coming from her, she didn't like how that sounded... Ada rolled her eyes just as that thought surfaced.
'No way I'm feeling challenged for this idiot's attention; she will probably have it worse than me.'
"But anyway, I don't know where she is anymore, and if she thinks I'm still that company's asset, she'll come hunting me. I'd rather she didn't; I don't want to deal with her bullshit."
"You still haven't told me what you need from her." Sasuke leaned back, not really interested now; one crazy woman is enough for his mental health. "What's worth risking exposure?"
Ada hesitated, but she decided to answer him; there was no need for lying to this man anyway.
"A key."
Sasuke frowned turning to her, "what key?"
"Not literal," Ada clarified. "A genetic key—a sequence coded into certain vials. Without it, the data I have is useless. She's the only one who had the access to finish it before they wiped her team."
She snapped her fingers as she though of something.
"It was the job they hired me for before you came into the picture, but now that I think about it...what if that key is the thing they hired me to retrieve so that they can control the mutated walkers? I'm aware they probably gave the mission to another agent when I was assigned to trace you. Is that why she never contacted me?"
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that. "So, without that key, no one can control the mutations? And your friend is the good one who is keeping it safe from the bad guys' reach?"
She chuckled hearing that "Alice? Good one? Please..."
"So her name is Alice."
"Doesn't matter, want to cuddle?"
"I'm a bit too cold for your taste, remember?" Sasuke stood about to do his scouting and halted; Ada's flirtatious words didn't register as his eyes blazed red, the world around slowed, and he caught the move from the corner of his eyes. Visible 30 meters from the window behind Ada, something moved.
It wasn't human, it wasn't a walker, and it wasn't that fucking giant monster either; this thing moved too fast to be any of that, in strange matter resembling an agile spider.
Its crawling shortened the distance to the window by the time Sasuke finished circulating his chakra and applying a body flicker to appear behind Ada.
Who blinked as she grabbed her gun and turned just in time to see Sasuke standing in front of her, his hand closing around...a tongue?.
A long tongue that squirmed, but it was the hissing and rumbling screech that made her aware of the quadrupedal abomination below that had its long exposed tongue caught; it looked like a mix of broken human with muscles and exposed tendons crawling on its weird bent four limbs ending with hooked claws, its skin pale showing more tendons.
Sasuke pulled his arm back and ripped the tongue off kicking it away.
"Down," Ada followed his order instinctively, and she watched as he rotated and parried the claw from a second creature resembling the first one using a kunai.
She shot her gun and blinked, seeing the thing dodging the bullet point-blank with an agile move from its limbs.
The two crawling creatures started circling them with their focus pointed solely toward Sasuke.
Ada was about to stand when she felt Sasuke's palm on the top of her head as he pushed her down gently.
"Stay down," and he jumped the same time the two crawlers lunged for his head.
Sasuke spun midair, delivering double kicks to both his sides, hitting them with such force that sent them flying through the wall and outside the house they were using.
Ada spoke hastily as she stood; she didn't want this sadistic bastard to beat her this late at night. "It wasn't me; I have no tracker this time." Not with his hands, at least...
"I know."
"What was that anyway?"
"Another bug sent to hunt me by your good ol' friends," Sasuke answered dryly and unsheathed his sword.
He spun, throwing two kunai and gripping the steel wire tied to their ends, then pulled.
The first monster with a ripped tongue screeched as the kunais got buried to its shoulders and the tied wire around its head tightened before being pulled back into the house.
Sasuke sidestepped the flying bound monster, evading its claw sweep and beheaded it using his Kusanagi in one motion.
Ada was about to retort the friends part when she found that he was nowhere to be seen.
"Sasuke?" She whispered, her eyes looking around the darkness for him.
She turned to the other monster and blinked, caught off guard seeing it state.
It was...frozen.
Not literally, but that monster with the long tongue wasn't moving; it just stayed there, its eyes closing slowly.
"What's wrong with it?"
"Like I thought, they are triggered by my presence." The voice reached her ears, and she flinched; her fingers went to her ear and she found a piece there.
'When did he...?' she couldn't believe he planted an ear piece amidst all that chaos without her noticing.
"What do you mean? Where are you, Sasuke?" Ada spoke still having her gun aimed at the stationed monster.
Sasuke, who confirmed that the monster showed active actions every time he neared 50 meters from him with his chakra unsuppressed nodded his head.
He then spoke to his comms.
"Hey, Ada." Although she felt surprised he used her real name, the situation didn't let her talk about that.
The beheaded monster near her feet, and the other stationed some distance away only made things more unbearable for her; for the first time in a long time, Ada hated being alone.
"What?" She whispered back while her eyes were still locked on the frozen monster, part of her telling her to just gun it down.
"Can I ask a favor?" She tilted her head, not expecting that.
"In exchange, you can go your way after this."
Ada breathed, weighing her options and goals. "I want to hear it first."
"Walk toward it," and she suppressed a curse hearing that.
"Are you insane? Look, if you want me dead, at least do it yourself... if your heart has softened to the point you can't do that, then—"
Sasuke cut her blabber. "I'll keep you safe, that's a promise, alright? Nothing will happen to you, I swear; just walk closer."
She froze; Ada had never put her trust in another person or luck...much less a stupid promise.
"Give me a smoke bomb."
"To your left, catch it." She turned, expecting him, but only saw two small balls thrown her way.
She caught them by reflex and steadied her breath.
"You want to study its proximity of reaction and compare it with yours don't you? I can do that, but I don't want to leave...instead, let me join your travels, and I'll make sure you will be satisfied with the info I can get for you. In exchange, help me with something."
"Deal"
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Author here:
The scene in my head was much more clear and... I don't know, cool?.
It was kind of a mind game.
Sasuke discovered the message, she retorted, and he pressured her. She didn't want to tell the truth and preferred a physical showdown over that. He pointed out her acting, and she deflected, telling him she was warning an enemy not to mess with his base (final act to soften his heart).
All the while her true goal is warning Alice and trying to keep her away and alive because she saw what Haku did to his enemies who threatened his base.
She wanted the things Alice owes her...and she knew she wouldn't have them if Haku killed her first. (Alice is kind of arrogant and will try to do her usual acts, but whether it's the normal or powered version of her, I can't see her winning against Haku. So does Ada.
I hope it's clear for those who might have found it confusing.
Hope you are doing well and have a good day.