Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-36006024-20180926134241/@comment-36006024-20180928132135

Okay im reading the replys and you guys make great points.

Gai is def the one who had worked through pure sheer of will and Training. But attributing Hashirama's strength to being an ashura incarnite is all well and good but you have to realize something. Having amazing potential means nothing if you cant realize and work for it Naruto is an incarnate as well but throughout their lives, hashirama has been stronger than him.

Hashirama was killing adult, battle seasoned and hardened uchihas when he was a kid. Naruto couldn't even beat someone like Haku in his youth without Kurama's intervention.

Now, if we look at the lives of Hashirama and Naruto, Naruto directly got a boost from Hagoromo himself. Hashirama didn't. Say what you will about the wood release, yes its hax, but its hashiramas power that caused it to become as strong as it did. Yamato, Zetsu, Obito & Madara all had wood release, and it was said they all paled in comparison to hashirama - the only one to be comparable to him was Madara who had a hashi cell boost and rinnegan.

If you can be taught a skill, its not considered an outside power source because you can work for it. if you have a Bijuu or body mods or power directly received from an individual I.E Hagoromo, then that power is not your own as you can not attain that power naturally. so Sage mode and 8 gates are viable, because you can be taught and trained to use them.