Board Thread:Wiki Discussions/@comment-25134516-20140703093231/@comment-3568954-20140730065921

ItachiWasAHero wrote: Hashirama grew up and was born in, war. He had no choice and no time to do anything but get better and stronger he also lost a lot of people early on, two brothers even. He had more motivation and reason to be stronger earlier, PLUS he had Wood Release. Without six paths stuff and extra jinchuriki stuff included to Naruto, Hashirama is essentially the most powerful Incarnate of Ashura.. I would even venture to say that includes Asura himself.

each successor seems to be more powerful then the last and Wood release is an ancient technique it is implied that past senju had wood release so it is likely that Naruto will awaken Wood release before the manga is over