Hey guys! FanFictionneer here with the next chapter of The Sparring Tournament, and the end of the story is fast approaching, because the chapter after this one will be the last with the big final battle ^^ After that, I'm going to start with the next story on my list, which is Impel Down Outbreak. I've already written a tiny bit of it, but not even half a chapter :p I hope you guys look forward to the final match as much as I do :)

Anyway, on with the story! Enjoy!

Chapter Eleven: End of Round Three! Dragon Vs. Dog and Clash of Big Dreamers!

Round Three:

1. Roronoa Zoro (2) Vs. Edward Elric (11)

2. Natsu Dragneel (13) Vs. Kiba Inuzuka (19)

3. Naruto Uzumaki (23) Vs. Monkey D. Luffy (26)

After everyone was, yet again, patched up from their fights, it was time for the next fight. Natsu and Kiba were called on the field and the two soon stood there, facing one another, and both were wearing a smirk on their face.

Natsu cracked his knuckles. "Alright! I'm all fired up!"

"You bet! So am I and I am going to kick your dragon-ass!" Kiba exclaimed enthusiastically with Akamaru barking in agreement next to him.

"Sure, good for you." Shikamaru spoke up monotonely, not very interested in the conversation between the two hot-blooded fighters. "Alright, second match of round three: Natsu Dragneel versus Kiba Inuzuka, begin!" he called and the two competitors soon flew at each other.

Natsu took in a deep breath before placing his fisted hands at his mouth. "Roar of the Fire Dragon!" he shouted before a powerful stream of fire shot out of his mouth and towards Kiba.

Kiba and his partner dodged the incoming attack with not much effort at all before they went for a counter attack. "Man Beast Clone! Fang over Fang!" the Inuzuka yelled and Akamaru and him headed towards their opponent with incredible speed in their most signature attack.

Natsu smirked and pulled back his fist. The fist lit up with fire before the Dragon Slayer ran towards Kiba. "Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon!" he exclaimed and fire clashed with the Fang over Fang, dust flying everywhere.

The 'audience' clouded their eyes from the dust and debri. "So powerful!" Winry shouted over the noise of Natsu and Kiba's attacks clashing.

"It sure is!" Edward agreed loudly, though with a smirk on his face. "Isn't it great?!" he called as the dust started to settle and everything quieted down.

Winry couldn't help but smile at Ed's excitement, it was almost contagious as well.

When the dust cleared, they could see that both were still standing strong, though both of them had quite the number of scratches, especially Kiba. Both were breathing heavily in an attempt to catch their breath after such an effort.

Natsu smirked. "Not bad." He commented.

Kiba smirked as well. "You don't suck either."

"Thanks, I appreciate it." Natsu replied before running towards Kiba again. "Wing Attack of the Fire Dragon!" he exclaimed and jumped into the air. He brought down his arms, which were extended by fire.

Kiba wanted to jump out of the way, and he dodged one of the 'arms', but got hit by the second one, launching him against a tree. The Inuzuka slid down the tree and was clearly hurt by the attack, but he still got up. He grinned. "Now this is what I call a battle!" he exclaimed, burning with determination and enthusiasm. "Ready Akamaru?!" he called to his partner, who barked in reply. They turned into Man Beast Clones again and Akamaru jumped onto Kiba's back. "Two-headed Wolf!" Kiba yelled and with a hug cloud of white smoke, a large, two-headed wolf appeared. The creature that was a fusion of Kiba and Akamaru glared down at Natsu with a menacing look in its eyes.

"Oh! That's pretty cool!" Natsu reacted obliviously, making the other Fairy Tail members facepalm at their friend's idiocy and naivety.

The two-headed wolf growled and tried to hit Natsu with one of its strong, clawed paws, but the Dragon Slayer dodged and jumped onto the monster's paw. The pink-haired mage started to run all the way up the creature's leg. Kiba and Akamaru wouldn't just let him and tried to either bite him or hit him with their other front paw. Unfortunately for them, their size made them quite slow, so Natsu managed to run up the leg and jump on the wolf's shoulders unscathed.

Natsu grinned. "Gotcha!" he exclaimed before hitting the monster with a powerful Roar of the Fire Dragon, which not only damaged them badly, but also pushed them into the ground.

Natsu jumped off the two-headed wolf's shoulders before it disappeared with another large cloud of white smoke.

When the smoke cleared, everyone could see Kiba and Akamaru lying on the ground, covered in scratches and bruises, but still conscious.

Shikamaru, however, know that this was it and walked forward. "The winner is Natsu Dragneel!" he announced.

Natsu pumped his fist into the air and yelled from the top of his lungs. "Hell yeah!"

The others applauded and the Fairy Tail members yelled compliments to their friend.

Happy flew towards Natsu and tackled him, though Natsu barely moved from the force. "You did it Natsu!" the blue cat uttered happily.

Natsu laughed. "Of course I did you moron!"

Lucy smiled as she watched them from a distance. 'Natsu can make it all the way and win this thing!' she thought.

After Natsu, Kiba and Akamaru's injuries were treated, it was time for the next fight, and it was probably going to be the most exciting battle of all: Naruto against Luffy.

The two grinned at each other. "This is going to be great!" Luffy exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Yeah!" Naruto agreed loudly.

"Wow, I wonder who will win." Ino spoke up.

"What do you think Ino? Naruto of course! He possesses the power of youth!" Lee reacted loudly, pumping his fists in the air.

"Yes Lee…we know…" Tenten muttered.

"Third match of round three: Naruto Uzumaki Vs. Monkey D. Luffy." Shikamaru spoke up. "Begin!"

Naruto immediately performed the summoning jutsu, and after the cloud of white smoke disappeared, Naruto could be seen standing on the head of Gamaken.

Stars formed in Luffy's eyes as he looked up to the huge toad. "Suge!" he exclaimed.

"Stop staring and fight! Idiot!" the other Strawhats shouted frustrated.

Luffy laughed at his crew. "You guys are so silly!" he uttered before biting his thumb."Gear Third!" he exclaimed as his fist grew huge.

"Don't use your strongest attack at the very beginning!" The Strawhat crew yelled. (Since it's pre-timeskip One Piece, for those who forgot)

Luffy didn't listen and simply tried to punch Gamaken with his gigantic fist, but the toad dodged with great ease by jumping high into the air.

Luffy stared at the toad that was now in the air. "Ah…it jumped up…" he muttered dumbly.

"Idiot!" his crewmates shouted.

Luffy then shrinked due to having used Gear Third, which made him very vunerable.

Just then, Gamaken landed on the ground again, with Naruto still on his head. When Naruto saw the situation Luffy was in, he smirked. "Well, that was easier than I thought."

Naruto then made his signature handsign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he exclaimed and about a hundred more Naruto's appeared on the ground, surrounding the tiny Luffy.

The blonde shinobi grinned. "Attack!" he called loudly and the clones all headed for Luffy to try to either punch or kick him.

Luffy however, used his temporary size to his advantage and dodged the incoming attacks by jumping around and running through the clones' legs, which made them hit each other instead. Soon enough, all the clones were gone and Luffy returned to his normal size.

"Damn…" Naruto muttered. He then created a Rasengan with a clone he kept with him and jumped off Gamaken's head, heading straight towards his target with the ball of chakra in hand.

"What's that thing? It looks funny." Luffy uttered.

The pirate captain assumed that he could easily withstand the attack because of his rubberpowers, so he breathed in lots and lots of air, growing bigger in the process.

"Gomu Gomu no…Fuusen!" he exclaimed once the move was fully completed.

Naruto smirked and only a second later, his Rasengan hit Luffy head-on. The latter's eyes widened when he found out that his move barely did anything to lessen the effect of the blonde's signature attack. He was launched into the air and flew for a couple of meters until he came to an abrupt halt by hitting a tree. A spiral-shaped wound had meanwhile appeared on Luffy's stomach right where the blue rasengan had been just a moment ago.

"Damn, that hurt…" the young man brought out and got back up on his feet with a little help from the tree he'd just bumped into.

"Yeah, many people say that." Naruto reacted, a smirk still very much visable on his face. He knew that he was going to win this for sure.

The battle went on with many kicks, punches and even an occasional headbut. A while later, both Naruto and Luffy were still standing, but Luffy was still losing thanks to the earlier Rasengan. Both were breathing heavily as a means to try to get enough oxygen.

"Aren't you done yet?" Naruto asked his opponent in between breaths.

Luffy chuckled lightly, seemingly amused by the question. "Of course not. How about you, are you tired now?"

"Heh, no way in hell." Naruto responded and the fight resumed in the exact same way as a minute earlier.

Many more hits were delivered and the two continued on and on for at least half an hour until finally, Luffy got knocked out due to his injuries, which were worse than Naruto's.

"Alright, the winner of this match is Naruto Uzumaki." Shikamaru announced.

"That definitely was the most exciting fight so far." Lucy commented.

Sakura smiled and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it sure was." She answered. 'Well done Naruto, I knew you could do it.' She thought before walking up to her friend to heal him.

Luffy woke up shortly and after he was patched up, Naruto walked up to him with a sincere smile on his face. He held a hand out to Luffy. "Good job man, that was an awesome battle."

Luffy grinned and took Naruto's hand, accepting his help. "Thanks, you were great too!" he responded while his new friend pulled him up. Both Naruto and Luffy now knew that their friendship had already grown to be a strong one.

And that's it for this chapter! The next chapter, chapter 12 will be the last one, so prepare for the final battle!

FanFictionneer