I slowly regained consciousness. The world came back to me slowly: feeling began to return to my body, I could make out the blurry shapes of people around me, and I was thinking, albeit groggily. I was still in the same place, and I realized the fire had been extinguished. The stink of smoke still lingered heavily in the air. Two of the walls had been devoured by the hungry flames.

All of a sudden I felt a sharp pain in by back and legs where I'd been burned. It was agonizing. The back of my head was also throbbing. I winced and inhaled sharply.

"She's alive! Midori, are you okay?" I heard someone exclaim. The voice sounded familiar; it took a second for me to realize it was my friend Amaya. She was a medical ninja. The pale, black-haired kunoichi was leaning over me, rubbing cool ointment on my burned legs.

"Do I look okay to you? Don't ask stupid questions." I managed to rasp. My throat felt like a chimney clogged with smoke, and it was difficult to speak.

"Yay! She's back to normal! Well, sorta, I guess." Amaya said. "At least she's herself again."

"Now listen up, Midori." Amaya said with an air of authority. She always liked to be in charge. "I'm putting ointment on your burns. I've already put bandages on your most severe wounds. Once we get you stabilized, we're gonna take you to the hospital, 'K?" When I didn't reply, she snapped, "Well, we're taking you there, whether you like it or not. Deal with it!"

Then another voice I recognized spoke. "Daichi has been moved to the hospital, where-" Kakashi began, but Amaya cut him off.

"Oh, who cares about her brother? Midori's much more important!" Amaya said. Kakashi hit her in the head, and she cried, "Ow! Kakashi-sensei, what was that for?"

"Don't interrupt." he said rather sharply. "As I was saying, Daichi has been moved to the hospital, where Lady Hokage is healing him. She's the only one who can treat his current condition. That's why Amaya is here right now."

"Yeah, if we hadn't come when we did, that guy back there would have killed you or you'd have died from loss of blood!" Amaya exclaimed as if it was the most amazing thing ever.

I sighed at my friend's bizarre, disturbing enthusiasm. I heard another annoyed sigh from in back of me.

"Jeez, Amaya, you're so troublesome." I heard Shikamaru say. For some reason part of me was glad he was here, but I didn't know why.

"Oh, shut up, Shika. You know you were more worried about her than any of us were." Amaya snapped.

Shikamaru didn't even retort. He just walked over and knelt down beside me. "You feeling better?" he mumbled.

I nodded. I was aware of my heartbeat quickening a bit. My cheeks felt warm for some reason. This was strange. Shikamaru was one of my best friends, but lately I'd been feeling weird around him. It was annoying, but part of me liked it. It was all very confusing.

"Good. Oh, here you go. You might need these if you want to see. They fell off before when you hit your head." he said, grabbing something from the floor beside my head. I tried to take my glasses from him, but my arms were all bandaged up and burned. When he saw that I couldn't take them myself he gingerly slipped them onto my face.

The first thing I saw the room came into complete focus was Shikamaru's face above mine. He had the same bored expression he always did, but I could tell he was glad I was okay. I caught myself smiling a bit; a lazy grin spread across his face too. Somehow, he could always find a way to make me smile almost unintentionally, no matter what the circumstances were…

"Awww, you two are so adorable!" Amaya teased. She had a bad habit of saying the wrong things at the wrong time. Idiot.

I blushed and looked away, embarrassed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Shikamaru kick Amaya over. She spilled the rest of the ointment all over herself. She stood up, so angry I wouldn't have been surprised if she tore Shikamaru's head off right then and there. I couldn't help but chuckle despite myself.

"Hey, what was that for, you son of a b-" she began to screech.

"Okay, well that's enough of that!" Kakashi said, clapping his hands together rather loudly to silence Amaya before she could say something obscene and get into a fight. Shikamaru and Amaya didn't exactly get along, and if they fought it wouldn't be very pleasant to listen to. "I think Midori's stabilized enough. We can take her to the hospital now."

So they took me to the hospital. When I got to my room, I realized how exhausted I was. I drifted off into a deep, troubled sleep as soon as I lay down on my bed.