**Present**
Kakashi was dying.
A shudder ran down his spine as he lay on the cold floor, staring up at the glare coming off the lights overhead. He had lasted 18 hours – 18 agonizing and terrifying hours. Never in his 26 years as a shinobi had he ever endured something like this. His very bones were on fire and his muscles wouldn't respond. His vision swam as a fresh spasm of pain wracked his already exhausted body.
"Please," he murmured. "Please just kill me."
But there was no one there to hear – at least no one who would stop the pain. He vaguely made out a pair of feet several steps from his head and closed his eyes as a shadow loomed over him.
"You brought this on yourself, you know," said a voice from above his prone body.
Kakashi couldn't stifle the moan that rose to his cracked lips.
The voice spoke again, this time with a sardonic note of amusement, "I never thought I would see the famed Copy-Ninja reduced to such a pitiful state."
Kakashi's eyes snapped open and he scrambled into an upright position just in time to vomit into the toilet a few feet from where he lay. He whimpered as the spasms abated and clung to the sweating bowl like a child to its mother.
Iruka draped a thick blanket over the man's shoulders and gently patted the heaving back. From his own experience, he knew that the virus would work itself out of the host's body within 24 hours. The headache that accompanied it, however, lasted about 3 days. He didn't tell Kakashi that.
The grey-haired man slumped against the wall and drew his knees up into his chest, shaking as he pulled the blanket closer around his body.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" he muttered from the floor. He didn't look up at Iruka as the teacher bent down to lay a cool hand on his forehead.
"Naruto told me what you pulled the other day. I can only see this as some kind of just desserts."
Kakashi's gag reflex triggered momentarily at the mention of "dessert" but he was able to maintain his composure.
"If I would have known…" he began.
"Yes, yes," Iruka interrupted. "Hindsight is 20/20."
"Bless their little hearts," Kakashi croaked as he once again bent over the toilet to empty the contents of his stomach.
This was definitely karma coming back to kick him in the ass.