Board Thread:Boruto Discussions/@comment-33066801-20170910125949/@comment-734582-20170925055417

Starscream1998 wrote: It's things like these that makes me think the whole Naruto Gaiden theme of 'genes don't matter' is a bunch of total BS. Um yes they do Kishi, clearly they do either that or you just don't pay any attention to what you write now. They do matter, just not in that particular way.

I mean Naruto Pt1 pretty thoroughly established a sort of equivalency between talent, hard work, innate power and intelligence.

Naruto beat Haku's jutsu with sheer power, not skill. It was Sasuke's genes that allowed him to see Haku's motion. But at the same time, only hard work allowed Sasuke to catch up to and fight Gaara. Similarly, Lee (pure hard work) was beaten by Gaara (Innate power and intelligence).

Hard work pays off, but a genius that works hard is stronger than someone who just works hard. Note that Madara, the main badguy, was very smart, very powerful, worked incredibly hard and was incredibly talented. And while it took him a while, Naruto caught up in power, unlocked his talent (Manipulating large amounts of chakra. Alternatively: creating unlikely allies IE kurama), caught up in smarts (education does help) and worked incredibly hard.

But what Kishi meant to say in Gaiden is, sure you may have a genetic relation, but that doesn't mean you have a good social relation. And a good social relation doesn't rely on a blood relation. And in that respect, genes don't matter.