Not Dead Yet!
Out of the hospital, again. For the second time in, what, a month? The doctor who signed my charts told me he'll personally smash my other knee if they see me in here again before three months are up.

Since I've got a check-up next week, I figure we'll just end up playing Hospital Hide-and-Seek.

Got snagged by an Intel agent just about two minutes after I staggered into HQ, so I spent the morning filling in the edges of all the questions Intel didn't ask me in the hospital. Wasted the rest of the day doing nothing much. Kakashi gave me a dog. It's got ears bigger than its body, which is about the size of my spread hand. That isn't much of an exaggeration. He says it's a guard dog. I'm pretty sure the morphine messed up his brain. Guard rat, maybe? Mostly it chews my shirts and barks whenever someone walks by the door. I threw a crutch at it when it tried eating one of my Shuriken Force tees, but the Vertical Limit one is rags. You owe me a shirt, Kakashi. And a concert or something, for sentimental value.

Tried sleeping. Didn't manage it very well. Can't shower, either--can't stand without leaning on something; I'm thinking they pinched a nerve or cut my chakra coils or something so I wouldn't strain it while it's healing, 'cause I definitely don't remember being this weak last time. Hopefully it'll heal better. I think I can stand looking out the window to see if it's raining, instead of having my knee tell me.

Got dinner in the cafeteria, but Morimoto-san wasn't in and I didn't feel much like talking, anyway. Got a lot of weird looks. I bet it was the rat-dog. It bit the only two guys who stopped by to talk--not that I blame it, 'cause neither of 'em seemed like much fun. Headed upstairs pretty soon after that, anyway. Next time you think I need a babysitter, Kakashi, can I have one I don't have to carry everywhere? 'Cause crutches and rat-dog are not easy to manage.

There's a samurai action flick on TV right now. Those guys are pretty bad-ass. Bet none of them would've taken a fluffy rat as an excuse for a guard dog.


[Private]

Woke up sweating and strangling on a scream ten minutes after I fell asleep this morning, after the debriefing. Spent the rest of the afternoon watching daytime TV and playing Shuriken Force with the bass all the way up. If I don't sleep, I can't have nightmares. It worked pretty well in the hospital.

Well, in the hospital I had a couple other people to chase the nightmares away. TV's not quite the same, but at least it's something to concentrate on. The rat-dog's mostly good for tripping over and swearing at.

Least it doesn't look like Kuromaru. I wonder if that's what Kakashi was thinking, when he summoned it.

Kuromaru. I'll have to talk to him sometime, when he wakes up enough to understand. Tell him--

Shit, I don't know. He'll be drugged for days still. I'll figure it out.

If I keep the lights and TV on round the clock, I'm gonna run the electricity bill up real fast. Guess that's what combat bonuses are for.

[/Private]


I need to buy more lightbulbs.