Plot armor fails

"Begin" Iruka sensei shouts as Naruto immediately dashes towards Sasuke while Sasuke just stands on the same spot.

Immediately reaching into his pouch, he throws shurikens at Sasuke but he's taken by suprise when Sasuke throws shurikens at his and all his shuriken and deviated from their path by the force.

Although he knew that there should be a large gap between him and Sasuke, it was still suprising to experience it. Though he didnt have that much hope for the shuriken to end the fight, he only tgrew it to stop Sasuke from attacking him with shurikens or even worse, using a jutsu. Acheiving his plan and finally getting close to Sasuke. They quickly begin a taijutsu battle, throwing a right hook immediately as he gets close to Sasuke, he is suprised to see Sasuke dodge it effortlessly and counter attack immediately with a punch to his stomach making him flinch , he quickly jumps back realizing the gap between their taijutsu skills.

Deciding to fight it out with Sasuke in long range,he picks out more shurikens and throws them but just like before they are easily countered by Sasuke though one the his shurikens was off target and went out the ring, Sasuke doesnt have time to worry about this as Naruto reaches into his pouch again bringing out another sets of shuriken from it and throwing them, Sasuke throws shurikens to counter again but this time he is suprised when one of Naruto's shurikens suddenly deviates from its original path and dogdes his and comes straight at him. He quickly jumps back finally moving from his spot for thr first time in the fight but quickly realizes that another shuriken is coming at him from the back.

Naruto was almost completely sure that he had won as he stared at Sasuke about to be hit by his pincer attack butwas suprised when when Sasuke suddenly dissapeared and a log appeared in his place taking the shuriken attacks, Before he even had time to react, he hears Sasuke saying the name of a jutsu and almost immediately feels heat at his back but luckily Iruka sensei quickly appeared at his back and took him out of the way of the fire jutsu. Announcing the winner of tge fight as Sasuke, Iruka sensei called the fight to a close.

Naruto was still in a daze as he walked towards me still suprised at what happened.

"You did good, you almost won"

"But i didnt"

"But you did your best, thats all that matters , its just a spar, its not like it compulsory to win or anything and besides Sasuke is so much more stronger than you so almost winning against him is impressive and a win on its own"

"I guess so"

"Besides we're in the academy now and you can start closing.the gap between you both of you as from today "

"Yeah, you're right, i cant let a loss put me down and besides im the guy that will become hokage. how can i be put down by a single fight"

"Of course"

Finally done with all the spars, Iruka sensei ranks us all based on the fighting prowess we displayed during our fights. Ranking first on the list was Sasuke, second was Shikamaru and then third was Shino with Ino ranking last among all the clan heirs and Naruto ranking immediately after her with me after him and then all the other civilian kids after me.

I guess it makes sense for Naruto to rank higher than me based on what he displated during his fight though from our spars i win most of the time with him winning once in a while.

The class finally came to an end and we all went back into the classroom and took our seats excited for the ninjutsu class that was about to start.