She was being shaken. Someones hand gripped her shoulder and was shaking her hard.

She wanted to wake up. To tell them to go away, she was dying and she would appreciate it if she could die in peace. "Uzu. Uzu wake up." She frowned and moaned and turned over to glare at the person shaking her and stopped cold when she saw Sakura staring back at her. Her emerald green eyes flickering from her face to the area around them anxiously. Uzu blinked and tried to focus her eyes and saw a glittering black stone behind Sakura.

The memorial stone. The same memorial stone that had been destroyed in the first attack against the village. What the hell? She heard several people walking towards them and twisted her head to look at the ones stopping just above her head and stared in shock at Shikamaru, Kiba, Neji, Lee and Gaara. "Sakura, has she woken up yet?" Neji asked and Sakura reached out and grasped her shirt front and pulled her upright and looked like she was about to smack her when she realised that Uzu was now totally awake.

"What the-"

Gaara dropped down next to her and gave her a tight lipped smile. "I know how you feel, this is just odd." He said as he looked around. They were all at training ground seven. The place where Kakashi used to train them. Uzu looked from one person to the other then around training ground seven. Her face pale under all of the blood and ashes.

"Is this a dream?" Uzu asked in a weak tone, tears slipping down her cheeks as she looked around.

"I don't think it is. I think that we're really here." Shika said as he dropped down to the ground next to her. One of his hands automatically going to the soft, lush green grass under them. His fingers shifting and lightly pulling at it. He closed his eyes and breathed deep. Taking in the scent of the grass.

He hadn't smelled fresh clean, green stuff in forever. It reminded him of all the time he had used to spend in his mother's flower garden, laying on his back, napping, watching the clouds and such. Uzu looked at him wide eyed. But they couldn't be in Kanoha village.

It was gone. Destroyed.

She was about to ask something else when they all heard someone pushing their way through the bushes to their left, muttering curses as they dragged a sobbing child behind them. "Damn it Asuma, stop crying! We have to find the others and figure out where we-"

"Konohamaru!" Sakura cried happily as the young man broke through the bushes and stepped out into the open and froze as he looked around. His jaw dropping open as he gaped at the scenery around him.

"Holy mother of-"

Lee flung a kunai at the seventeen year old. Konahamaru yelped, jumped back and tripped over Asuma and fell. Taking the seven year old boy with him. Lee laughed evilly as Konahamaru growled, swore and tried to get up without taking the little boy's head off with his foot or something.

Shika sighed and shook his head. Neji chuckled. Kiba grinned.

Hearing Konahamaru carry on like this reminded them a lot of Asuma-sensei and all his little episodes. Gaara stood up and went to help Kona, and Asuma out before they killed each other. "So where do you think we are?" Kiba asked Shika, his dark eyes staring at the faces on the mountain side behind the Hokage's tower.

Shika made a funny sound. It was hard to say where they were since he didn't recall how they had gotten there in the first place. Hell, he didn't even remember what he had had for breakfast before waking up on training ground seven. "I think we're in Kanoha...but I'm not quite sure how we got here, or why we're here." Or when they had gotten there, though from the looks of it, it was before the attacks that had destroyed the village.

"Uzu do you remember anything before Sakura woke you up?"

"I remember fire. My skin burning off, my heart exploding in my chest...and that's pretty much it..." Uzu said in a shaky tone as all eyes turned to her and focused on her face. She was joking right? No one could survive something like that. Yet there she was, her body intact even if her clothes were badly burned and damaged. She was alive, her flesh in place over her skeleton, the blood rushing through her veins.

"Are you saying that you died?"

Uzu made a funny sound and nodded her head.

Shika's jaw dropped. Kiba grabbed one of her wrists at the same time Sakura did and both checked for a pulse, then turned her arms this way and that and examined her.

"I thought that Kyubbi wouldn't allow you to die." Neji said in an irritated tone. Uzu was about to answer when Gaara called out.

"It wouldn't. Kyubbi is a demon, a creature without flesh or form. Being sealed inside of a human body allows it to learn more about us, to feel, and taste and touch anything and everything. In return for being allowed to inhabit the human body, it lends it's power, its knowledge and other things to the one that it's sealed with in. Allowing the host to die would be condemning it to a half life. It wouldn't allow that to happen under any circumstances."

"Sooo Kyubbi may be the reason that we're here." Kiba said nervously.

"It is possible that in it's long life, the demon may have learned certain things that could be used to reverse the condition of it's host, even though the host is dead." Gaara said as Kona and Asuma both settled down and shut up so that the Kazakage could speak.

"Could Kyubbi have dragged us along for the ride while bringing Uzu back?"

Gaara mulled over the question and ran a few scenario's in his head before answering. "Yes. If we were all close enough to get caught up in whatever it did. Or perhaps it chose to send us back to help Uzu change the past. What ever reason Kyubbi had there are now several things that we must do. 1) Gather info. We need to know what day it is, what month, and year. 2) Hide ourselves in plain sight. Though we are now surrounded by the ones that once loved us, they could become a threat to us if they think that we are strangers after something. 3) We need to plan accordingly and go from there."

Shika nodded in agreement.

"Okay. How do we find out the date?"

"I'll go scout around. The rest of you rest here and wait for me to return. If anyone else from our group shows up, fill them in." Gaara said as he used a transformation jutsu to change himself into Kakashi and noted the pained expression on Uzu's face when she looked at him and felt his heart clench painfully in his chest as some of the missing pieces clicked into place.

Ah, so she lost him. I'm sorry to use your beloveds form dear one, but this must be done.

And when he returned he would pull Uzu aside and let her cry for her lost love.