Plot Armor

"At times, I wish I had come to this world with great power right from the start, like in many stories I've read," Ryo said, looking at a scene as he thought. It was already night; he was upside down hanging from one of the trees. He was learning how to walk on walls, which wasn't too complicated since it was all about applying and controlling chakra.

"Everything would be so simple, I could perform a great jutsu and become Hokage or something like those stories with huge titles where someone reincarnates into another world as the shinobi god or something."

Letting out a sigh, Ryo fell from the tree, flipping himself back up and landing on his feet. It was night, nearly midnight; it had been more than two months since he had met Sae.

Once again, Ryo had effortlessly taken first place in the exams, but there had been a change, at least in the taijutsu test, as Naruto had come in second this time. Training with Ryo had paid off, and the boy was now stronger than he should be at his current level.

For the past month, Ryo had started training closer to the Uchiha clan compound, observing the situation from afar. He had nothing to worry about since the area he was in was designated for training, even though it was close to one of the major clans.

Ryo wore black gloves on one hand, and in the palm of that hand, hidden during the fight, was the golden coin. He used it for training, able to conceal the coin inside the glove and create a coating of golden metal inside it, which wouldn't be visible to anyone who looked.

"After I thought about it, training became easier."

He clenched his fists and punched the tree next to him, causing his fist to create a small hole the size of his fist, about five centimeters deep, just with the power that the liquid metal gave him.

"I'm stronger now, but since I'm still in my first year and have already planned what I want to train this year, once the next year starts, I'll start mastering other jutsus. Even with the golden liquid metal, I still need some Doton and Futon jutsus."

Thinking about this, Ryo returned to his normal routine, after a few minutes, returning to his home. In the past month, Naruto had asked Ryo for help with some jutsus, especially transformation, but Ryo was busy, so he told Naruto to ask one of his classmates, Hinata.

After that, he hadn't spoken much with Naruto, but he had seen him trying to ask Sakura for help with the jutsu and being harshly rejected by her. Ryo knew that some things didn't change easily.

The next day, standing upside down on the ceiling in his apartment, he had a balloon in his hand. Every day he took some time to train the Rasengan, but for some reason, he just couldn't execute the second part of the training, even though he remembered how Naruto had trained under Jiraya's tutelage. Even after two months, he hadn't progressed even 20% in the second part of the training.

Throwing the air balloon aside, he get down and lay down on the bed, thinking. "All the other ninja arts I'm focusing on are improving rapidly, even my chakra. But there are definitely things I don't have the talent to use. Maybe the Rasengan, and perhaps I can only use it when I learn the Shadow Clone technique."

Then he got up while speaking in a low, slightly irritated tone. "Damn protagonists with plot armor." He looked up, not that he was angry with Naruto; after all, even though he was still a child, he had become a good friend of Ryo's. But he was frustrated with himself; he could consider himself a secondary protagonist in Naruto's story.

"But even with that, if I die, it's over, not to mention that the movies happened during the main story; Naruto even died a few times and came back." But thinking about it wouldn't help Ryo at all. He had his own talents and had come to this world with Jiton, a rare power that had become even rarer due to his family's secret technique.

Ryo spent the rest of the day training in his room and meditating. As the days passed painfully slowly, Ryo became increasingly tense. With each passing day, he was getting closer to the first major event he would attend in the story. And then everything would start to develop more quickly.

With another end of the month approaching, Ryo looked at the calendar in his house; the last day of the month was marked, it was when the last test of the year at the ninja academy would be held. It was the last test he had to take, and he had to get the maximum score on all the tests, which was proving to be easy for him. He didn't care much about showing off these skills in the tests.

Ryo always put himself in a situation where he scored just a few points above the other students, except, of course, in the taijutsu exam, where he was clearly the best in the class. And with that, he didn't have to worry about drawing any undue attention to himself.

Test day, end of the year, last month:

Ryo hadn't been able to sleep and had stayed up all night, sitting on the floor, looking up at the sky on Naruto's roof. The chilly weather of the dawn and the sounds of the environment were Ryo's companions on this starry night. In his hand, he held a kunai, spinning it on one of his fingers. Every spin of the kunai showed him a different image of what had already happened in this world, along with some images from the old world, familiar faces, friends, good and bad memories. Ryo was pensive this night, focusing on one event that would occur, just days away now.

"I'll do what I have to do, give it my all, even if it won't change anything. This is my world now. The people in it aren't characters from a manga anymore; they're real people, I'm real, and so is the world."

It was something he had been pushing aside for a long time. Initially, Ryo had thought of all this as being a character in a story, being an extra, but he wasn't. Naruto wasn't, either. He wasn't even the protagonist anymore. Ryo knew the world had its rules, and Naruto and Sasuke were still bound by prophecy and destiny.

"Like all the other events that are going to happen." A serious expression appeared on Ryo's face as he stopped the kunai, gripping it tightly. "Screw destiny; if I want to save someone, I will, I won't let that stop me, plot armor or not!"

With this thought, he stood up, and along with him, the Sun began to rise, the large, golden sun bathing the world in light once again. Ryo would continue to oppose anyone or anything that wanted to take something precious from him.

Walking towards a new dawn, Ryo jumped from the rooftop of the building as he began to run. For the first time in a long while, he was determined. He would do what he believed was right. Ryo isn't cold and calculating; he is... Human.