I don't own Naruto, now enjoy.

Chapter 19: Tai vs. Lady Death

The moment Vallen and his friends landed, Naruto's plan was initiated. Tai and the others were to immediately challenge a certain member of the group. Tai was to fight Lady Death. His mission was simple: lure her away from the others, and end her. Tai mentally prepared himself and charged her. He caught her off guard, slamming his fist into her face. She flew off toward the south part of the village. He followed.

Somewhere along the way, Lady Death recovered and poised herself to attack. Tai maneuvered around her, making sure she would follow. She did, and he led her to a secluded part near the south gate. Finally, he stopped.

"Well, you sure know how to keep a girl waiting."

"Sorry," Tai replied. "I was just following orders."

She glanced back to the mansion, barely visible so far away. "I see. Getting me away from the Hokage. No matter. I can handle you, then your Hokage."

"Confident, aren't we. You still have to go through me first."

"You're right. Don't worry. I'll make this quick."

With that, she sprang into action. Her hands flashed through her signs, and she created a bolt of lightning in her right hand. She threw it at Tai, who easily dodged, releasing a fireball of his own. Lady Death avoided the attack and took out her whip. She flicked it toward Tai, who caught it, but was instantly shocked by the whip.

"You see, Blondie, my whip has my chakra in it. Touching it like that will only result in you hurting yourself."

Tai grimaced as he tried to move his body. The electricity had done some real damage to his motor skills. He wasn't sure if he would be able to move correctly. He tested out moving his left arm to throw a kunai, but instead, his right arm moved. He tried to move his right arm back, and his left arm moved instead.

'Great, now is not the time for me to lose my ability to move,' he thought as he saw Lady Death moving in for the kill. She now had a knife in her free hand. She truly intended this to be over, but Tai wouldn't allow that. He sent chakra down to his feet, burning the ground beneath him. As Lady Death approached, she felt the heat, but didn't believe it to be of consequence. She was only four feet away. He would be dead soon.

Therein laid her mistake. Once she was inside the circle of heat, Tai let her have it. He unleashed his maximum power on the ground around him. The flames leapt up, licking Lady Death's boots. She jumped away, but not in time to save herself from the burns.

"How dare you!" she screamed.

Tai smirked. "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen."

This infuriated Lady Death, and she charged for his throat. At this point, Tai regained control of his body and created a Rasengan in his left hand.

"I really hate to do this," he said casually, "but I need to get back and help Naruto-sensei, so…bye!"

The Rasengan began to burn with golden flames as he moved to strike. He was creating his signature move. He ran for Lady Death, who was intrigued by this new jutsu. She flicked her whip to the ground, throwing herself into the air, then a lightning bolt fell from the heavens, striking her raised kunai. Tai halted and watched as the kunai seemed to extend, creating some kind of sword. Somehow, he knew that this would be trouble. His Rasengan was still ready in his hand, so he formed a hand sign with free hand. As he did, fire sprung forth from his feet, giving him enough thrust to soar into the air. Lady Death saw it and lunged with her blade. Tai extended his Rasengan and it met with her blade.

BBBOOOOOMMMM!

The resulting explosion rocked the village. Their jutsu had created a dramatic explosion that had leveled this part of the village. For fifty yards in all directions, the village was gone. Tai rose from the ground where he was embedded, a little disoriented. He staggered around for a moment, then searched for Lady Death.

Lady Death had survived the explosion, but just barely. She had never been wounded so badly. Who was this kid? How did he do all of this? Her jutsu was able to slice through anything, even chakra. What was going on? She got to her feet and saw that the boy had already risen. He didn't look so good, staggering around. 'Maybe I can win this,' she thought. She called her whip to her hand from a few feet away and flicked the weapon toward Tai.

Tai saw it coming, but he was too weak to get out of the way. He had never been in a position like this before. He had taken some hard hits, but none of them had left his body this weak. He racked his brain for ideas. There had to be some way for him to survive, but he could think of nothing. The whip struck home, sending Tai across the empty field, and embedding him in a nearby piece of rubble from a large building.

"You see, Blondie? This is my power. You were no match for me."

Tai grinned and detached himself from the stone. He formed a Rasengan, without the golden chakra, and charged for the woman once more.

"Pathetic!" she said, readying her whip. She was ready to strike, when Tai slammed the attack into her gut. She was sent spinning across the field, landing eighty feet away. She was furious. She rose, and began forming hand signs. Suddenly, the clouds above darkened, lightning flashed, and thunder roared.

Tai would have been impressed. Had she not been trying to kill him. She really was impressive. He had never thought she would get up after that last one, and now, here she was, preparing yet another destructive jutsu to take his life. He smiled. He knew how this would end.

He formed hand signs and placed his hand on the ground. "Aguni Clan Summoning: Great Molten Dragon!"

A giant claw emerged from the ground, followed by the giant molten dragon. Tai grinned. It wasn't often he got to use this dragon in a real fight. A giant bolt of lightning began to fall, ready to strike down Tai, but the dragon leapt above him, shielding him from the blast. The dragon took the hit, and then turned to regard Lady Death. It belched, and a giant fireball flew toward her. She was too weak to move after the jutsu, and was struck by the fireball full-on. She fell to ground, burning in the dragon's flame. Tai released the summoning, and the dragon returned to its home.

Lady Death wasn't moving. Smoke rose from her body, but somehow, Tai couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Unfortunately, he was right. Once more, Lady Death rose. Tai didn't understand. No one could have survived that attack, not even Naruto. Tai nearly puked as she turned what was left of her burnt face toward him. Were those…fangs! What was she?

Lady Death smiled. No one had ever seen her at this level before. She'd never needed to use it. She disappeared, and reappeared directly behind Tai. He tried to get away, but she was too fast as she dug her claws and teeth into him. When she did, he began to feel weak.

As he grew weaker, he began to be consumed by a genjutsu. He became distracted as he watched a beautiful woman, who seemed to be very familiar, gently stroke his spiky blonde hair. She was gorgeous. Whatever he wanted, she had. If he wanted her to be tall and blonde, she was. If he wanted her to be red-headed and short, she was. She leaned down and kissed him, but then he remembered. He was in a fight! He must be in a genjutsu.

Tai broke the genjutsu and freed himself of Lady Death's grasp. To his shock, her face had regenerated. More than that, her whole body seemed to be regenerating. She smiled at him with her now perfect face.

"How did you…What did you do?"

"Surprised, Blondie? Well you should be. Very few have ever seen me in this state. I'm perfect in this form. You can't stop me. Not now, not ever.

"But what did you do?"

"I stole your chakra and used it to regenerate. Quite simple really. I'm surprised you broke free before I could finish you off."

'I don't know what to do,' Tai thought. 'I'm practically out of chakra, and I don't think my body's up to taijutsu. I need to find a way to stop her. If only I could trick her somehow, like…. That's it! I can do this!'

"Sorry, Hun, but I've got a date with the Hokage, so if you'll excuse me, I'll be finishing off my snack!" She lunged forward and bit Tai once again.

He didn't struggle. He didn't even move. He just let her feast on his chakra. It was torture for him, being drained like this. It was like feeling every part of your body shrivel up and die. Finally, she was finished. She stepped away, licking her lips.

"That was pretty good. You were quite the appetizer. Too bad there aren't two of you. I guess that's the price you pay for a good—Aah!" She began to pull at her face, which had turned red. Tai watched weakly as the redness spread down through the rest of her pale body.

"You!" she spat. "What have you done to me?"

"I knew that I didn't have the strength left to win, so I let you drink my chakra, but not before I fused it with my golden chakra."

"What?"

"I combined the regular chakra you were drinking with my own golden chakra. My clan is the only one that can handle that chakra. It burns any others who have it. Sorry, but I guess you just ate your last meal!"

"No!" she screamed. "No! No! No! No! No! No! No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! You can't win! I won't let you!"

"Sorry, lady, but it's over," said Tai, forming one last hand sign, which caused Lady Death to explode.

The force of the blast knocked Tai to the ground. He lay there, waiting for the cold embrace of death to take him away from the pain of this world.

Sorry it took so long to repost. I've had a rough time the past few months. I've been sick and had writer's block. Talk about a combo. Anyway, I've posted 5 chapters in one night, so I hope that might make it up just a little bit. I'm trying to plan out the end of the story. Based on what happens later on, and whether or not I get 15 reviews when I do finish this story, I'll probably decide on whether there will be a sequel. Let me know what you think. Thanks, please R&R. See ya!