A/N: Hello all, RivalsToLovers here once more, and I'm coming at you with another Chapter. I know it seems like I'm going awfully fast with the chapters I'm pumping out, but I just can't help but write and write and write. I enjoy writing this story so much that I just can't sit still. I have to pump out another chapter, my inspiration is on fire! Anyway, first thing's first, I need to address my Reviewers.

CreedRazerReaper - Akatsuki will come into play at some point, yes. It is inevitable that they will butt heads. That is all I'll say on the matter, though, as I want to keep some secrets to myself ;). As for the pairing idea, it could work, but I think I know what pairing I want to do now, so I don't think I'll be accepting anymore pairing ideas. Sorry if the idea is sudden, considering it's the 4th Chapter, but considering I have yet to see this pairing, I'd like to take a shot at it.

Please Read my stuff - Aw, thank you, kind sir and/or madam. XDD I doubt I'll be quitting this story anytime soon, as I have a lot of inspiration for this story. :3

thewhitedragon1993 - Thank you for the positive review of the Chapter. The story behind how he got his power is a bit complicated, and it's a story I'll save until the time to reveal it comes. ;) In regards to whether or not he'll join the Akatsuki, he might, but he most likely won't. When the moment comes and does say no, I'll explain why. Kiri Civil War, maybe, I haven't had any plans to have him get involved in that, but that is an idea I could see using sometime down the road. The final one is, I don't believe there will be Bashing. I just feel it would detract from the focus of the story if I just bashed anyone. Most Bashing fics I've read have the characters that are bashed be taken to such ridiculous extremes that it's almost comical, and while Dragon Ball stuff tends to have some humor in it, I'm just not the type to write that stuff.

I just want to say that Mercenary Tao will use some Techniques he didn't have in Canon, and before any dread can set into you, don't worry, it won't be any army killer attacks, or city destroying blasts, or anything widespread like that. Due to his style and all, he's not the type to use Techniques like that. Considering he's an Assassin, he's the type to be less loud than that. He'll start using Energy Waves and such, but I promise you that they won't be doing any widespread destruction. He might use DBZ-Era Techniques, but they won't be any super destructive Techniques. I know it may not seem fair that Naruto has Jutsus like that, and I'm not allowing Tao to have Techniques of a similar nature, but I just feel that since he's more of an Assassin and such, he would be more of the type to favor precision and skill over widespread destruction.

As I mentioned in my second chapter, someone actually gave me a really good idea for a pairing, and it isn't something I've necessarily seen before. Looking up the woman in question, I have some ideas for her that would fit the dynamic perfectly. So, as I said to CrazedRazerReaper above, I am no longer accepting pairing requests. That being said, I hope you all enjoy the newest Chapter and enjoy the story. Don't forget to Review, Follow, and Fave, as feedback on my work gives me motivation to write. :3

"Talking"

'Mental Speech'

*Thinking*

"Bijuu/Inner Personality/Cursed Seal Talking"

'Bijuu/Inner Personality Mental Speech'

*Bijuu/Inner Personality Thinking*

Jutsu/Technique Names

Chapter 3: The Confrontation

It had been about a week and a half since Mercenary Tao and Tazuna had entered Nami no Kuni, and things were tense in the household. Inari had grown deathly afraid of Tao and often refused to be alone with him. Although, after that violent episode Tao had with the boy, he had since gone quiet and had yet to utter another word about how the blonde-haired assassin was gonna die by Gato's hands, which was perfectly fine with Mercenary Tao. That's what he had intended to do, make sure the boy that would never let such filthy garbage spill from his miserable lips again. Perhaps the boy even though of him being more terrifying than Gato, which would tickle Tao's fancy quite a bit.

Tsunami showed thinly veiled hostility towards him, the memory of what he did to her son forever earning him a spot on her hated people list. Whether or not he ranked higher on her list than Gato remained to be seen, though, as the woman was still too terrified of him to try and do something to him. She was smarter than most, because if she did try something, he would have slain her where she stood, regardless of what Tazuna and Inari's thoughts on the matter were. So long as the woman retained her common sense and realized that messing with him was a bad idea, he would be perfectly happy to let her live.

Tazuna outright loathed him, though, saying he was worst than Gato. The comment just made Tao smirk in amusement, treating it fully as a compliment. Yes, he fully believed that he was worse than Gato, and he had no issue with being seen as worse than him. He had a reputation to uphold, after all, and he wasn't the type of person to deny the fact that he was a monster. He took pride in such a thing, but he truly believed that what put him above other monsters, was his sense of business.

Every day, he guarded Tazuna while he did his work on the bridge, and all seemed well, but Mercenary Tao constantly had this feeling that he was being watched. His senses always picked up that someone was nearby, watching him, but he couldn't figure out who it was. The scent he was picking up smelled vaguely of rainwater, and...was that apples he smelled? It was interesting, but wholly unfamiliar to the mercenary, although he could tell that they were most certainly female. Whoever it belonged to, he knew for a fact that they were following him, and he deduced that, whoever they were, they were observing him. They weren't really learning a whole lot, as all the times they had observed him, he hadn't really shown off anything truly unique. Whatever their reason was for observing him, though, was something that was completely unknown to him.

Nevertheless, he was suspicion of this unknown person that seemed to be following him every time he was out and about. During all the times they had been following him, he had been guarding Tazuna, and he had yet to encounter a single problem so far. However, that was all about to change today. As Tao waited for everyone to go about their morning routines, he took Tazuna to the bridge to do his work. When they got there, though, they discovered that someone had butchered almost all of the workers. Tazuna went chalk white and retched over the side of the bridge at the sight of the mutilated bodies. Tao, on the other hand, barely batted an eye. Examining the corpses slowly, he raked his eyes over their forms, and took notice of the sword wounds.

*Hm, the wounds themselves are obvious from a blade of some kind, but there's also these curious burns so close to the wounds* Tao thought to himself as he looked over the wounds. There appeared to be burns of some kind on the wounds, but they obviously weren't fire burns. His sensitive nose twitched as it picked up the peculiar scent on each of the victims. *These are electricity burns, most likely from some kind of Raiton-based weapon* the mercenary thought to himself once more. That was when his nose picked up that scent again, the obviously female scent that had the stench of rainwater and apples. Narrowing his eyes, he took notice of the mist that started permeating the area.

*Hmph, another Kirigakure Ninja, I see. I wonder if it's another Shinibogatana member* he thought to himself with a smirk on his face. Suddenly, he detected movement in the mist, and whoever the movement belonged to, they were clearly heading towards Tazuna. Quickly sliding a throwing knife into his hand from his right sleeve, he threw the blade with extreme speed towards where the sound came from. In a flash, he noticed an odd squelch sound, and then heard a sound of what sounded like water splashing on the bridge floor. Ah, so it was another Mizu Bunshin, marvelous. Then there was a silence for a few moments, before it was then broken by a sultry chuckle that came from right in his ear.

"I finally get to cross blades with you, Mercenary Tao. How joyous" said the voice right in his ear, but considering Tao did not sense a presence behind him, he didn't bother acknowledging the person that spoke to him. Just like the scent, the voice was clearly female in nature, and it caused him to narrow his eyes. He didn't bother with the usual banter yet, not until he knew who it was that he was facing off in Battle today. Suddenly, his ears picked up movement heading straight towards him. Picking up the sound of a blade slicing through the wind, coming from his right, he quickly jumped above the offending blade, and proceeding to bend his leg backwards to kick it in that direction. The result was his foot slamming into the face of the person who tried to slice him in two. As he landed, he felt the ground beneath him wet with water again, and his left eye twitched when he realized it was another Mizu Bunshin.

Still, the person had yet to show herself to him, and although he could pick up her scent and move towards her at any time, he felt that he could easily handle anything this woman could throw at him. Figuring himself to be her superior in every way, he kept his arms folded behind his back and allowed her to control the flow of battle for now. He narrowed his eyes when he detected multiple presences around him, he quickly pulled a throwing knife out from his sleeve, held out the hand that contained the throwing knife, and then spun around quickly, which caused him to hack through the Mizu Bunshins with ease. The voice spoke up once more, and his annoyance spiked up, but he did not let her know that he was aware of where she was, instead preferring to play around just a tad bit.

"Hiding weapons inside of your sleeves, hm? That is actually an ingenious idea. I'm impressed so far, Tao, but since my Mizu Bunshin aren't up to the task, I suppose you should meet the real deal" said the voice, and in a flash, the woman carrying the scent of rainwater and apples was in front of him, swing a pair of blades at him. A little caught off-guard by the speed, he jumped backwards just enough to avoid receiving a fatal injury by the blades. Of course, they still cut two fairly deep wounds in his stomach that started to bleed, and he felt the sting of lightning course through his body for that very short second that the blades had made contact with his flesh.

Hissing in annoyance, he made sure to get out of reach of the woman's blades, and took the time to analyze her. Upon looking her over, Tao's eyebrows rose up into his hairline when he recognized that of the strongest Shinobigatana Nonanishu member, that of Ameyuri Ringo. S-Rank Nuke-Nin, wielder of the twin Kiba Blades, killed more than half of the Mizukage's Elite Troops and wounded Yagura himself with a deep scar across the eye before fleeing Kirigakure after she was heavily wounded by said Mizukage. She was one of the most-wanted criminals in the world, and she was to be his opponent? Mercenary Tao grinned at the thought of facing her in combat, and he knew immediately that he would have to give it his all. He had fought a number of Ninja in his time, but this would be the first time he would cross blades with an S-Rank Ninja.

"Well well well, Ameyuri Ringo, the strongest of the Shinobigatana Kirigakure organization. I admit, I did not expect to see you here. Let me guess, Zabuza and his masked accomplice were minions of yours" Mercenary Tao said to Ameyuri in a snide manner. The swordswoman in question grinned a predatory grin at him, and nodded her head in the affirmative. After that little exchange, she lunged at Tao and attempted to bring her electrified twin blades down on top of the semi-known Assassin. In response to this, Tao quickly drew his blade from it's sheathe, and with just one hand clutching tightly on the hilt, he clashed his curiously white blade against hers and causing sparks to fly among them. He felt some minor strain as their blades clashed, and while the Kiba Wielder's strength was impressive, Tao's strength was massive due to his heavy focus on hand-to-hand combat, and because of that, he was capable of holding her back.

Ameyuri pressed down tightly on his curiously white blade, her shark-like teeth grinding together as she tried to slice through his blade. Something was wrong, her Kiba blades were the sharpest blades in the entire world, they should have been able to cut through his own blade, and on top of that, he wasn't being electrocuted by the powerful lightning flowing through her blades. Genuinely curious about this, she grunted out a statement as she twisted her body around to avoid his kick, and then spun away from him.

"My blades should have easily cut through your sword, and you should have blasted by the electrical charges going through my blades. That sword of yours isn't a metal blade, is it?" she asked him, before darting forward and then performing a clockwise spin with her swords sprayed out to her left. Tao quickly brought up his blade and blocked her blades with his own, and then sent her spinning with his exponential strength. Rather than being knocked off-balance from being sent spinning, the Female Shinobigatana member easily kept her footing and took advantage of the spin to try and cut into him, this time with her swords splayed out to the right. Tao was quick to defend himself by darting backwards away from the blades, and then lashed out with a punch at the left side of her cheek, which snapped her head to the side and sent her spinning backwards and away from him.

"How astute of you, Kirigakure garbage. This sword is a Kaguya bone sword, made out of one of the bones of the late Kaguya Patriarch, and not only are Kaguya blades indestructible, they're also made of bone, and bone doesn't conduct electricity" he said in reply, blurring out of sight and reappearing behind in a burst of speed as he attempted to slash all the way down through her spine. Ameyuri seemed to have realized where he disappeared to, and managed to lunge forward enough to avoid getting a crippling injury, though there was now a deep gouge going through her back that ripped the back of her shirt in two. Feeling the sting of the wound, she let out a let out a hiss, not one of pain, but one of enjoyment, because she finally had an enjoyable opponent to fight in a long while ever since she abandoned Kirigakure.

"That is quite a find, Tao. Lucky you. Interested in sating my curiosity by telling me where you acquired it?" she asked with a cheeky grin on her face, spinning around and using the momentum and to send her forward at her opponent. She slashed at Tao once as she spun, then stopped mid-momentum, spun the other way to slash at him again, spun back the other way to slash at him again, then repeated the cycle until she had thrown a total of more then 30 slashes in the span of a mere three seconds. Her spins and movements were so quick that it legitimately looked like that a miniature tornado was forming around her with every spin she performed. Tao's response to this was to quickly bring up his sword, and deflect each blow she threw at him as he skillfully glided with nimble feet across the bridge, making sure to be mindful of his surroundings so that she doesn't trap him up against a wall.

While Tao most certainly had the strength to outmatch her, and incredible speed to go along with it, Ameyuri was very nimble, and wasn't giving him to fully incorporate his strength behind his blows. That being said, it was clear to tell that the redhead wasn't giving it her all, and to be honest, Tao wasn't doing his absolute best, either. As the two exchanged blows with their blades, they appeared to dance across the bridge, their forms a fuzzy blur as Ameyuri slowly pushed Tao around the bridge.

"Maybe I'll tell you as you lay dying at my feet. After all, dead women tell no tales" Tao retorted in a snide manner as the androgynous former Kirigakure Kunoichi jumped onto the guard rail of the bridge to give herself more height, and managed to perform a very acrobatic spin on the very guard rail and tried to slash at him once more while maintaining perfect balance. Tao quickly ducked underneath the slash, and then managed to strike her in the stomach with the hilt his bone sword, before headbutting her in the chest and then sweep kicking her off of her feet. Ameyuri took the full brunt of the attacks, and if she were a lower ranked member, than she would have normally fell back-first onto the guard rail. However, she was a full-blown S-Rank Ninja, and she quickly spun herself away from Tao horizontally in the air, sliding the blade in her right hand into her left and then stopping herself by performing a one-handed hand stand on the guard rail with her now free hand. She then slammed down feet first onto the guard rail, slid her other sword back into her free hand, then lunged at Mercenary Tao and attempted an x-shaped cross slash on Tazuna's bodyguard.

The pink-garbed assassin quickly spun away from the attack, and jumped onto the guard rail. He then lunged at her and assaulted her with a barrage with quick, fencing thrusts of the blade, also showing incredible balance on the thin guard rail. The Mistress of the Silent Killing Technique quickly sprinted backwards as she twisted and turned her body around to avoid the thrusts of his blade, before striking him in the face with the hilt of her left Kiba blade, and while it stunned him for a split second, it barely did more than that. However, that split second was all she needed, as she quickly assaulted his chest with a spinning slash of her blades. Tao managed to recover in time to avoid the attack, but unfortunately for him, she managed to cut across his left arm enough to leave profusely bleeding deep gouges in it, and he grit his teeth as the lightning on the blades coursed through him and shocked his system.

"Such arrogance, how manly of you, Tao. The meal grows more delicious by the second" she retorted with a shark-like grin, to which lead to him growling in irritation as he jumped off of the guard rail and attempted to slash her feet off of her legs. Ameyuri, though, chuckled and proceeded to jump to avoid the blade, before letting out a cry as she attempted to crash her blades down on top of him again. Tao let out an irritated tch sound and glided to the side much like water to avoid the the attack she threw at him, and in a blur of speed, he appeared behind her and managed to shove his sword through her chest, which caused her to let out a rasping cough. However, when Ameyuri collapsed into a puddle of water, Tao narrowed his eyes as he realized that she used the Kawarimi no Jutsu to swap out in time with a Mizu Bunshin.

He didn't admit it out loud, but Ameyuri so far had been the strongest opponent so far. Even against Ninjas, Tao had rarely come across an opponent so fierce. He hadn't noticed any Mizu Bunshin because his focus was entirely on the S-Ranked Nuke-Nin. Thankfully, it seemed that she had felt that keeping her Mizu Bunshin so close to Tao wasn't a good idea, and seemed to be keeping however many she had left out of range. Waiting patiently, and ignoring the bleeding come from the wounds he had received at her so far, his nostrils flared when he picked up the scent of Ameyuri behind him. Spinning quickly, he kicked her away and slashed at her with his bone sword, causing her to receive a deep cut that went down diagonally from her right should down to her left hip. So, that made it her two wounds to his four, then.

In a flash, she vanished back into the mist, this time coming to the side of him. Darting backwards quickly to avoid the downward slice, he hit her in the chin with a high kick and then spun kicked her hard into the nearby guard rail. Trying to capitalize while he had the chance, he flung a throwing knife that he aimed directly at her skull. There was another squelch-like sound effect, and he grit his teeth in irritation when he realized that it was yet another Mizu Bunshin. So, she was back to trying the Silent Killing Technique again, was she? This was just getting annoying for the underworld assassin, as this is the first time he had to ever really struggle. He was about fed up with this woman, and was prepared to unleash hell upon her, until he heard her speak up.

"Well, as much fun as this has been, my tasty meal, I've grown just a tad weary of this, and so it's time to goodbye to your earthly bonds. Ikazuchi no Kiba!" was what she had called out to Tao as she drew her swords together and summoning a lightning current and attempting to summon a lightning strike down upon Tao. Widening his eyes just a bit, he proceeded to dart across the bridge, barely avoiding the lightning strikes that she was summoning from the sky. Every time he avoided a lightning strike, he heard the echoing voice of the hidden Ameyuri, who seemed to be able to keep track of him as he was able to keep track of her. Deciding to get creative, he let out a scream as he gathered his energy into his hand, and managed to deflect one of the bolts right back at it's creator. Tao didn't get off scot-free, though, as his left hand became deeply burned by the attack.

The hidden Ameyuri was caught off-guard by the deflection, and was struck with such force by the bolt of lightning that she slammed forcefully into the crane of the bridge, sliding down with an echoing thud as her body smoked from the power of the lightning, Letting out a cough, she staggered back to her feet, only to find that Tao was already on the approach, sprinting at his incredible speed so he could cleave her in half at the hips. Widening her eyes, she quickly placed her Kiba blades into the air, and gathered her Chakra. "Raito Jutsu: Rakurai!" she called out, summoning a bolt of lightning down on to her right when Tao was so close to hitting her. The result was the bolt of Lightning Chakra summoned a powerful shockwave that slammed with incredible force into Tao, and sending him skipping and sliding down the bridge. Growing more and more enraged as the fight went on, he staggered back to his feet, and quickly gathered his Ki into his eyes.

"Choke on your own blood, you androgynous trash! Soumasen!" he shouted back at her, firing a pair of thin beams from his eyes at Ameyuri's lungs. The surprise maneuver only allowed her to ensure that she didn't take any fatal damage, though the beams did pierce through the right side of her collarbone and through her right bicep due to the way she dodged, causing her to feel searing pain. The two of them panted as they glared at each other, the fatigue starting to set in just a bit. Pitch-black, predatory black orbs met predatory sapphire blue orbs, a spark of intensity forming between their eyes. Neither giving an inch, daring the other to make the first move. Sooner or later, one of them had to break the stare and go on the move, or else they would be here forever. Tao was starting to feel the blood loss and the loss of feeling in parts of his body from the electrocution damage, and Ameyuri was also losing quite a bit of blood.

"You are the toughest meal I've ever hard to work for, Tao. You've put up an admirable fight so far, it's been a long time since I've fought someone who could stand up to me. Such a shame you're going to die here and now with that bridge builder, as I'd actually like to face you again. Such a shame that your path ends here! Raiton: Sandageto!" she said as she used the strength necessary to stab her swords into the metal bridge, then fired twin bolts of lightning into the sky. Before Tao could react, a powerful bolt of lightning struck the ground and sent out a massive shock-wave that Tao only barely had time to bring up his arms and defend against the attack, forming a protective shell of energy around himself. There was a flash of white, and he was then consumed by the powerful Technique, slamming forcefully into Tazuna and protecting him from the blast.

As Ameyuri panted, she waited for the blast zone to clear, and when everything cleared up, she saw Mercenary Tao slowly stagger back to his feet. He had seen better days, with his striking outfit having been destroyed and leaving him clad only in his undergarments and shoes. Quite a bit of his body had been burned, the mustache on his lip singed off, and his beautiful hair had been burned off. Slowly standing up, Tao slowly uncrossed his arms, and snarled at her, very thankful that his sword was still fine. The redheaded swordswoman, when she saw this, widened her eyes when she saw that he had managed to survive one of her strongest attacks, a thick coat of sweat rolling down her and her panting increasing. Gritting his teeth as he snarled at her, Tao proceeded to smirk evilly at her, and shakily formed his hands into the triangle formation.

"You whore, you ruined my outfit, and it was custom-made! Enjoy the Afterlife, Kikoho!" he shouted out, forming a super powerful square-shaped wave of energy that flew at the strongest member of the Shinobigatana Nonaninshu, with such speed that she only had time to form a Lightning-based Barrier around her body to shield her from the blast. As the explosion sounded off, and the smoke cleared, Ameyuri was stuck in a similar position as Mercenary Tao was. The both of them were on their last legs, and they both fell to one knee. Yet, even though that they were nearly spent on energy, they still had enough in them to glare menacingly at each other. Slowly, ever so slowly, they staggered back to their feet, and they were about to launch themselves at each other for one final attack, before they noticed the mist that Ameyuri had summoned up had dissipated.

"Well well well, look at we have here, boys. It seems we have ourselves some bones to pick dry" a snide voice commented on the situation, which caused the two S-Ranked opponents to stiffen up and look around them. What they saw made them grit their teeth, because on one side of the bridge, they had Gato and his gang of thugs, while on the other side, they had an entire Kirigakure ANBU Team. Looking each other in the eye, they came to a silent understanding, and pressed their backs together, an action that caused Ameyuri to hiss in pain due to the deep gouge in her back.

"What's the meaning of this, Gato?!" Ameyuri asked with her shark-like teeth as she pulled her swords out of the ground, which caused Gato to laugh in amusement.

"I had contacted the Mizukage about your location here in Nami no Kuni so I could sell you out to him and collect the bounty on both yourself and your little group of minions, and so Yagura had decided to send a full of ANBU, under the promise that I allow Kirigakure ANBU to be stationed here and fund his village. However, I had chosen to have both my men and the Kirigakure ANBU stand back and wait until the time is right, which was when either one of you died and the other was left weakened, or when both of you were too weak to put up a fight. Now, I get to get rid of both the man after my head, and collect your bounty as well" he said in reply, which caused the redheaded former Kirigakure Kunoichi to widen her eyes. As the two fighters examined their opponents, Ameyuri proceeded to speak up to the man that had previously been her opponent.

"I think I have enough Chakra left for one more Jutsu in me. How about you, meal?" she asked Mercenary in between each pant she made, which caused Tao to narrow his eyes.

"Grab a hold of me, and when I say now, you use your strongest attack, do you understand?" Tao asked her quietly with narrowed eyes, which caused Ameyuri to grunt out the affirmative, and turned to wrap her arms around his neck. Deciding that his life was more important than protecting Tazuna, he took a deep breath, gathered his Ki, and flew up into the air to position himself in front of the sun. After sheathing his sword, he placed his hands in front of his face. "SOLAR FLARE!" he shouted, as he closed his eyes, causing the sun to brighten up to inhuman levels, stunning and blinding the thugs, Gato, and the assembled Kirigakure ANBU team.

Tao then quickly slammed back into the ground, and gave Ameyuri the signal, which caused her to pierce the ground with her Kiba blades once more, and used her Raiton: Sandageto jutsu again, packing as much power as she could get away without killing herself from Chakra Exhaustion, resulting in everyone, including Tazuna, to be utterly obliterated by the attack. Once the smoke has cleared, everyone on the bridge had been vaporized, but Tao and Ameyuri were nowhere to be seen, the Kiba blades she wielded having vanished along with them.

A/N: AND BOOM! Chapter done, and left on a bit of a cliff hanger! I hope everyone enjoyed this fight, because I really did my best to make it as even as I could.