"Three."
The next punch came, and Ino threw her arms up in front of her face. It was worse than when fighting with Hinata. She used to think she understood strength. How wrong she was.
Ino was flung back again, but this time, before crashing into the ground, she swapped places with one of the wooden dummies.
Asuma's voice sounded before she could regain her bearings. "You've improved."
Ino said nothing. She grabbed for any weapon she could use. The only one, unfortunately, being the black kunai. She hadn't been prepared for a fight, and left her tool pouches at the hospital.
"But it still isn't enough."
Ino spread her legs, hands flashing with seals. Another two of her appeared, both also holding the black kunai.
Asuma took another stance, trench knives still crossed in front of his face. His eyes were emotionless. His voice was flat.
"Shikamaru tells me you're trying to get yourself killed."
"I'm not," Ino shot back.
"You tricked your team, then engaged in battle with three unknown enemy shinobi. Alone."
Ino scowled.
"If dying is what you want, I'll put you out of your misery," he said again, voice still cold.
"I'm not!"
"Then what the hell are you doing?"
"Being a kunoichi," she snapped. "And maybe if you stopped treating me like some pampered genin—"
Asuma blinked. Then nodded.
"I'll treat you like you want, then," her sensei said. "You'll die if you don't take this seriously."
Ino gripped the kunai harder, waiting for the next attack. Only, it wasn't anything she'd been expecting.
Asuma's stare turned even colder, and then something smashed into her mind. It wasn't a genjutsu; it wasn't even chakra, but she felt the world darken and the air turned thick, wrong. Her spine stiffened, her legs almost buckled. She couldn't breathe.
Asuma didn't wait.
He disappeared, then landed in front of her, arms extended in a slash. The attack came nowhere near hitting her clones, but both dispersed. In the same movement, he kicked her chest. It wasn't anywhere as gentle as the punches had been.
She had thought he was going all out before; he wasn't. She felt bones crack in her chest, her vision going white and mind blanking for a moment. She recovered just enough to see the knife coming for her again.
Ino weaved, evading the attack, or so she thought. Even moving away from the knives wasn't enough to prevent injuries. A cut spread across her chest, pain and blood gushing out from the wound.
She landed hard on her back, screaming, almost incoherent. But she didn't stop. That same pressure bore down on her again and she flickered away a few moments before Asuma smashed where she had been, trench knives digging furrows into the earth.
"That's all?" Asuma got up, still looking at her with cold eyes.
Ino gasped. She didn't know what to do.
"If that's all you amount to," he shrugged, eyes even colder.
Ino understood. If she didn't fight back, Asuma was going to kill her. She didn't know why or how, but he was going to kill her. She gripped the kunai tighter, then screamed. Raw, unfiltered. All the frustration and anger. She flickered forward, trying to appear behind him and stab.
Asuma turned, knives ready to cut again.
Ino aborted the attack, fingers flashing faster than she ever managed before. An earth wall rose between both. Not enough to stop the knives from cutting into it, but enough to give Ino time to move again.
She created a clone, then switched places with another wooden dummy, just in time to see Asuma blasting her earth wall with an explosion of ash and fire, destroying her newly created barrier and clone.
Ino's hands flashed with more seals. She hadn't mastered this jutsu yet, but there wasn't any other she knew. She finished the hand seals, the thumb of each hand touching the index of the opposite, forming a square between her fingers pointing at where Asuma was.
Only, her teacher wasn't there anymore.
Ino hadn't seen the man moving, but he was by her side, knives descending toward her neck. Ino couldn't move fast enough to dodge. Chill spread from her chest. She was going to die.
That strange chakra near her heart reacted, bubbling and frothing, trying to do something, but not fast enough.
In excruciating slowness, she saw the knife approach. She even saw the chakra distortion around the weapon, and finally understood what gave it extra reach.
Ino had only regrets left. Not fast enough, not smart enough, not strong enough.
Not good enough to protect her.
She wondered if Hinata would ever forgive her.
Then the world fractured. The kunai in her hand shook, and before the trench knife hit, Hinata was between Ino and Asuma, with one leg extended in a perfect arc. Asuma shifted just in time, arms coming up to guard.
And only then did Ino understand: Even now, even at his coldest, Asuma had never gone all out.
The impact cracked through the air. He flew backward, skidding across the ground, leaving a furrow dug into the earth.
Hinata vanished again, reappearing at his side, palms aiming to drive him into the earth.
Asuma reacted fast, slashing upward with a trench knife, but Hinata didn't try to block or parry. She flickered away, already vanishing before the blade even came close to her.
Then roots tore from the ground, binding Asuma's legs and preventing the man from moving. Above him, Hinata hovered with a glowing ball of spinning chakra in her hands.
Asuma braced for impact.
Ino yelled. "Hinata, stop!"
Still in the air, Hinata's face wrenched from Asuma and toward Ino. Hinata's eyes were wide. One eye was all black and the other all white. The ball of chakra dissipated like it had never been there before. The roots receded, and Hinata disappeared, only to appear again in front of Ino.
"Ino-chan," Hinata's voice had that same scratchy quality. She smiled, caught Ino in a hug, head resting on Ino's shoulder. Hinata yawned, and just like that, she fell asleep again in Ino's arms.
There was a moment of awkward silence before Asuma approached. Ino cast a wary glance at him, but he just scratched the back of his head.
"Well, that wasn't how I expected this to end," he said.
Ino was angry at him, but she understood he hadn't been really trying to kill her. He had, in his own misguided way, given Ino exactly what she asked for: to be treated like a real kunoichi.
"Thank you," she forced the words out, still feeling mad about the whole thing.
"Do you need to go to the hospital?" Asuma asked, looking at the blood in Ino's clothes. "Your father will kill me if I hurt you too badly."
Ino shrugged. The cut had healed already. "I'm fine," she said, not sure what was going to happen, but happy Hinata had awakened.
More people showed up. The first to arrive was Shisui.
One moment he wasn't there, the other, he was by their side, red eyes staring at them. Not long after, the air shimmered and a whole ANBU squad was by Shisui's side.
"Is everything alright?" the Hokage asked, looking at Ino and Asuma.
Ino smiled. A genuine smile, maybe the first one since she'd returned from the Land of Rivers.
"Hinata woke up!" she exclaimed.
"And promptly fell asleep again," Asuma pointed out.