Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-3568954-20160930042222/@comment-25449165-20160930052507

Indra was one of the two brothers to have awakened the Sharingan and the Mangekyo, while Asura did not. Asura did have access to the Wood Release ninjutsu, while Indra did not.

While it's all possible in the human mind that if you put your mind into something, you'll be really good at it, it wasn't exactly the case for Indra. Since the beginning, Hagoromo had been pondering on who to choose to succeed him in Ninshu, and he could not choose between Asura and Indra because they weren't ready... yet, although he had more faith that Asura would be the one since he had a great understanding of the human heart.

Although he is kind and suitable, Asura had no will to ever succeed his father in Ninshu and immediately assumed the role will go to his prodigious brother instead. That quickly proved untrue when both brothers returned from their journeys. In a way, you could say that both brothers were very much proportionally the same in ability. While Indra was indeed more powerful physically, he had no understanding of the human heart and almost drove the village he helped to near destruction. Asura on the other hand may be the weakest in power, but his mentality and understanding of the human heart became his greatest weapons in bringing prosperity in the village he had helped, thus gaining the trust of the villagers (and his father) to defeat his older brother.