This fic will eventually grow into a sasunaru pairing, so be warned.

For all of you who have already been reading this story...this chapter has been revised. I felt the need to add a new scene so that the story will ultimately tie up better later on. It will help with the ending I have planned, trust me.

Prologue

"Hey, hey...Chichi-ue?"

"Hm?"

"Tell me that story again...please?"

The young man called Iruka sighed and brought the old, flea bitten covers up around the small boy's chin. "Which one?"

"The one about the fox djinn (1)!" The young boy stared at him, as though it was obvious.

"Oh yes, that one." Iruka mumbled. The one I have been telling every night for the past month. I should have never given in to him in the first place!

"Well?"

"Hm?"

"The story!" The boy was pouting now, his clear blue eyes misting up.

"Okay, okay..." Iruka paused, finding himself a comfortable position on the hard bed. "Once upon a time..."

"That's not right!"

"What's not right?"

"The beginning! I don't want to hear about Cinderella!"

Iruka let out a loud breath and scowled lightly at the stubborn boy. "I'm not telling you a fairytale, Naruto. I'm telling you the legend of the evil fox djinn."

"Nuh-uh! It's never started like that before." The young boy called Naruto crossed his arms and looked up at his father defiantly.

"Well, it does now. Don't you want some variety?"

The boy just shook his head. "That makes it sound like a mushy-girly kinda story."

Iruka just stared at the boy trying not to laugh at the new scowl painted on the boy's face. "Alright...who am I to argue with the great Naruto?"

"That's right!" The boy looked too pleased.

By now Naruto was sitting up in his bed, so Iruka took the time to push him gently back against his worn pillow and tuck him in tightly 'urck!' as he began the story...again.

"Approximately four decades ago, in this very village, an evil fox demon appeared in the surrounding forests. The Great Fourth Caliph (2) took it upon himself to confront the beast as this djinn was incredibly strong. Seeing that the battle had no perceivable end, the Fourth Caliph used his greatest technique and..."

"Oooh...I know! I know! He sealed the evil fox spirit into a small human boy!" Naruto exclaimed, completely undoing the tight tuck-in Iruka had accomplished earlier.

"Yes, Naruto." Iruka smiled with a glint of harmless irritation and retucked the boy in. "Maybe next time you can tell the story, ne?"

"huh? No way! Besides, you tell it best!"

"Sorry Naruto that was my last time."

"Awww!" The whiskered boy fell back against his bed in disappointment.

"Goodnight Naruto-kun." Iruka leant down, ignoring the boy's growing pout, and gave him a soft fatherly peck on the forehead.

Iruka got off the bed and was already half way towards the door when the boy asked another question.

"Ne?" He yawned loudly, displaying a slightly longer tongue than a normal child's, "Chichi-ue?"

"Yes?"

"Who was that boy?"

"Which one?" Iruka had known exactly which boy he was referring to, but felt it safer to play dumb.

"You know! The one with the sealed Fox Djinn!" The boy cried out in exasperation, pushing himself back up off his bed.

"I don't know, besides this didn't really happen, it's only a legend."

The boy looked back at him thoughtfully, a rare sight, then mumbled. "You're lying, I know it's real."

Iruka was careful not to let his jaw drop at the words. Oh no, is he figuring it out? "You don't know that."

"It has to be." The boy had a distant look in his eyes, a look Iruka would have liked to forget. It was reminiscent of the blank look the young boy naturally projected when he found him on the street years ago.

They both stayed silent for awhile, each stuck in their own worlds.

"Chichi-ue?"

Iruka almost jumped at the near whisper. "Yes?"

"What's this symbol on my belly?"

Iruka stared as Naruto pulled his tattered pajama shirt up, revealing the precise, dark lines of the fox djinn curse seal – although he didn't know that little piece of information yet and Iruka was not going to be the one to tell him about it, especially not now.

"I don't know, you had that when I found you." He watched the boy turn silent, staring and poking absently at the spiral tattoo. "Good night, Naruto."

It wasn't until he closed the rough wooden door that he heard a small, "Good night." whispered back.

...

Meanwhile, in a grand sandstone house within the very same city, a boy with hair the color of midnight was sprawled across a floor drenched in blood.

The sickening scene was completely silent except for an almost incoherent muttering escaping the sobbing boy's lips.

"Why...brother...why? You did it...you did this to them...mother...father...Auntie...Uncle..." The boy let in a shuddering breath and slowly pushed himself up, staring vacuously at a wall splattered with the blood of his family.

He let in a long shuddering breath and hardened his gaze, as though willing the stains to disappear through the power of his glare.

"I will kill you."

Then the boy disappeared into the desert night, carrying his vehement words with him.

Author's notes: (1) An Arab word for a type of demon. Djinns are usually more magical creatures, but I've decided it will do...so deal with it!

(2) As this story takes place in the1500ish Ottoman Empire, I have changed the name of the Hokage into the bureaucratic leaders of cities of the Ottoman Empire, the Caliphs. This story will continue to have these terms imbedded in it and I will explain what they mean along the way. I don't want anyone to get completely confused! Only slightly so...

Chichi-ue is the informal Japanese term for father.

That said, I'll also have to explain why I am still using Japanese terms. Simply put, I feel like it would take away from the Naruto-ness of the story if they didn't speak close to how they speak in the manga/anime. Thus, I am keeping some Japanese, like Ojiisan and Kun and other suffixes.

The rest of the story will deal with the tale of Naruto as if it took place within the Ottoman Caliphate around 1500ish. I got this idea when studying for a history exam...'nuff said.