Since I got an okay from two people so far, here's the next chapter!

I hope this gets better as it goes along, and I'll try my best to make it a good fanfic!

P.S. For all of you NINJA chibi fan's, another chapter should be posted soon!

Thanks, and enjoy!

DON'T OWN NARUTO, JUST MY OWN CHARACTERS!

~Dark's Innocence~

As darkness fell, my body became more and more tired.

I was almost finished with my assigned duties to the shrine, and was now merely sweeping the dirt off of the ancient steps that lead to the entrance to the shrine.

It was nearly twilight now, and the birds had begun to settle back into their nests; leaving the air that surrounded me seem like empty space were no sound was herd.

It was peaceful, and the only sound that could be heard was the broom's thick bristles scraping against the old stone steps. Creating a nice rhythm, as I stroked it back and forth, trying to pry the dirt from the cracks in the stone.

I closed my eyes, enjoying the sudden peace that filled my soul. This was much better than being out in the middle of the city, where only constant noise filled every inch of breathing space, and never let one have a moment of peace. Yes, grandmother may be annoying sometimes, and I may have to work my butt off every other day, but it was really nice out here.

I let out a large sigh, as the breeze picked up and started to play with my long, pink hair. It felt good to feel a breeze on my tired body, and the smell of pine was so wonderful, that I just wanted to find a grassy spot and sleep under the stars.

The stars…..that would be a wonderful idea, except that there are wild animals that walk around the shrine all the time; with the woods being right in the shrine's backyard, and I could possibly be eaten. Yeah…I think I'll pass, even though I don't really want to pass on something like that.

Opening my green eyes, I paused my sweeping for a moment, and just glanced at the sky.

I gasped as I looked up….it was red, a deep crimson red sky, that was the color of blood. But for some reason….I liked this deep mysterious color, which happened to be the very shade of death itself. Yes, such a lovely and dangerous color.

Don't ask why, because I don't really know myself…but that color seemed to call to me, like some forgotten memory.

At that thought, I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to rid that unreasonable thought from my head. Strands of pink hair flew around me as I tried to gather myself, and I almost let the broom fall from my hand out of loss of concentration.

This was not good….the color of blood? Distant memory? Okay, now I KNOW I'm way to tried to still be a wake!

"SAKURA! ARE YOU DONE YET!"

My body stiffened in slight surprise, as my grandmothers loud voice penetrated the peacefulness that had surround me for a good while; making the sudden noise, make me jump.

Wait…how many more steps do I have to do?

I looked down to see how far I had gotten with the sweeping….only to see that I was on the last one.

"Wow….I wasn't even paying attention to what I was doing…sigh, I really need to get some sleep tonight!-"

"-SAKURA!"

My grandmother's voice once again made me jump about 10 ft. in the air, rid the air of peaceful quiet.

Quickly turning back to my work, I started to sweep furiously, while yelling back at my grandmother. "I'LL BE RIGHT THERE! I JUST HAVE ONE MORE TO GO!"

Eye's burning with determination, I shuffled my hair back, and grabbed my broom with a nice grip. This was my last step, and I wanted SO BADLY, to go get some food and go to sleep…so…it was ON! This step was going to be so clean, that you could eat off of it!

Getting a strange little grin on my face, I started to wildly sweep the step with the fury of a typhoon! Dirt was going everywhere, and I swear I cackled once or twice as I swept a poor little bug or two away from the steps.

Yes…I was tired…and when I get tired, I get a little crazy. But my gosh that old woman worked me to the bone today! No wonder I was slightly insane! I just hope it wouldn't be like this every day, all summer long.

Yes, if this continued all summer long, I would defiantly go insane.

When the step was finished I was even more tired than before. I really didn't need to go crazy, and start shuffling dirt everywhere. But still, I guess I was eager to get done.

And now? Well, now I was making it back up the stairs, in which there about 500 I believe? Maybe more, maybe less? Overall, there were a lot of steep steps that I had to climb to get back up to the top. And with my tired body? This was going to be a long and painful trip.

By now my whole body was covered in sweat and my green T-shirt was also covered with the blood and sweat that I had shed to get today's work done. My white Skirt had mercifully been spared, and was dryly and gently blowing in the wind around my legs, as I made my way to main house.

I guess I was going to have to take a bath too, when I got back; since I was basically covered with sweat everywhere, except for my skirt which was located at the driest part of me. Yeah, a bath was going to be needed big time.

I was about half way up the long, steep trail of stairs when I decided to take a glance at the sky once again. Looking for the deep red color that stained the sky only minutes before.

But no, red no longer covered the sky like some wicked wildfire, no….instead, the color purple and dark blue had replaced the loud and eerie color the sky had, had before. It was strange….the blue and purple were like swirls of ocean and rain water that dosed the bright and dangerous flames that threatened to take over the sky in its red brilliance.

I stopped walking for a moment to observe the sky…..it had really been a red sunset…the reddest I think I've ever seen, and it had seemed to cover the whole sky, as if it were trying to over dominate the skies natural blue color. Strange…..it had all been very strange.

Shaking my head once more, I started my way once again up the shrine steps.

It was now dinner time, and I had just gotten out of the shower, feeling refreshed and was now ready for a good meal!

Sitting down at the table, I saw grandmother putting some rice balls on the table, while sitting down herself.

"You did a good job today Sakura, I'm proud."

Slightly surprised, I looked up see my grandmother smiling at me. Her wrinkled old face was for once not scowling, but instead smiling; and I'm going to be completely honest here, it was a rather nice thing to see. My grandmother rarely ever smiled.

Giving her a smile of my own, I set my chopsticks down, and started to speak. "Weellll..to be honest I thought you were a crazy old bat to give me all that work at once, but over all…-"

"..- Ahahahahahahahaha!"

I stared at my grandmother with bewilderment, smiling AND laughing all in one day? Was this old woman still sane? Did she still have all of her marbles? This woman just didn't smile!

"Ahem! May I ask what's so funny?"

"Aaahaaa..ahahahaa…haaaa, you my dear are a funny one! Aha! You truly are my granddaughter aren't you? Well….you did do a good job today, and you will have to do some work while staying here, but not nearly as much as today. Is that okay with you?"

I stared at her a moment, totally motionless, until I let out a major sigh of relief! I never wanted to work that hard again! It would work me to the bone, if I had to work that much everyday!

Looking up at my grandmother again, I gave a grateful smile. "Thank you…thank you…thank you…thank you!"

Grandmother only smirked and chuckled a bit my response. "Aha, yes,yes, you'll never have to do all those hard chores again. Well, you probable will, just never at once…..-" Her voice trailed off as her brow suddenly became furrowed. Something wasn't right all of a sudden. Why did she have such a serious look on her face?

After a moment of silence and looking at the table, grandmother finally turned her serious look on me; and I wished she hadn't.

The look on her face said something….something that I didn't quite understand. Something that I might not want to understand.

"Sakura..-" Her voice was grave as if the information she was about to give me would be the difference between life and death. No…I didn't like were this was going at all.

"..-I'm going to tell you something…and you have to listen to every word I say….got it?" My eye's grew a little wide, and I nodded my head numbly.

"Good. Now listen closely. There is one important rule that I forgot to mention, and one important rule alone that you should follow whenever you are here at the shrine. Now listen Sakura... I never want you to go into the old Shrine house. EVER. Do you understand me? That place is dangerous, and even though I can't tell you exactly WHY it is dangerous, I never want to catch you in there. UNDERSTOOD?"

My heart skipped at beat at the stare she was giving, and at the grave tone that her voice held.

Why I couldn't I go into the shrine house? What was wrong with it? This was getting to weird, and the look she was giving me, alone, was enough to play with my nerves. Something was SERIOUSLY wrong here, and even before she started talking I could see it in her eyes. But now I knew for sure, that something just wasn't right.

My nerves grew, as her stare became more intense. "SAKURA…DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

My fingers twitched nervously from underneath the table, and with all the strength I had, I managed to finally answer her back.

"Yes…grandmother…I'll…never go inside the old shrine house."

My reply seemed to be a good one, for my grandmother closed her piercing green eyes, and sighed. Her whole body becoming relaxed once again.

Once relaxed, she picked up her chop sticks, and began eating; acting as if nothing had happened.

It took me a minute, but I finally snapped out of the trance that I had been put in, and started to eat as well.

None of said a word to one another, and we both ate in an uncomfortable silence.

After a silent dinner, I had gone to bed….but no matter how tired I was, grandmothers words haunted me even as I lay down to sleep. No matter how many times I tossed and turned, I could not get that nagging feeling to leave me alone.

Something wasn't right, and it would nag me forever if I didn't figure it out. I gripped my comforters between my fingers.

That's what I was going to do, I was going to figure this mystery out….when grandmother wasn't looking…I was going to see what was in that shrine house, and I was going to get to the bottom of this feeling that I was getting. Even though I knew it was wrong, I just had to know, I had to know what was in the shrine house.

I feel asleep shortly after thinking these thoughts, and fell into a deep sleep; a deep sleep that was surround by nightmares.

Nightmares of blood red skies that rained human blood, and shrine houses that held horrible, unmentionable secrets.

I hope this was much better than the last!

To be honest, I'm to sure about this story, but I'll keep at it and see where it goes.

Thanks everyone, and I wish you a good day! ^-^