Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-27082825-20150116155842/@comment-25991349-20150122045742

Now that the troll is gone, I think we're all missing the fact that you don't have to have an affinity for an element to use it, hence Hiruzen's "mastery" of all five basic elemental divisions. He likely has a strong leaning to either Fire or Earth (probably Fire, based on his son and grandson), and that would be his primary affinity, the one that comes easiest to him and the one that would show up on a chakra paper test.

That's what the paper test really is about, in my opinion. It tests a given ninja's chakra and reveals which element is the easiest for the examinee to learn, wield, and improve upon. There is nothing preventing any ninja (barring special cases like Lee) from learning the other elements, but they probably likely learn additional techniques according to the ease in which other elements come to them.

In the special case of kekkei genkai, I still stand by the belief that if you were a descendant of someone who had an ability to wield an advanced, combined dual nature, then you are inherently able to naturally use both composite elemental natures.

I'm also a fan of Lukas' theory about the kekkei tota not only because it greatly simplifies the entire issue but it also simply gives this seemingly random concept some backbone. In Onoki's case, I think we can all agree he is an inherent Earth user, but by combining that chakra nature with the only other two that have no relation to Earth, he is able to transcend simple Earth and create Dust. It also jives with my theory that Jinton is simply an evolution of Doton, and it also makes it easier to think of it as a completely different concept than kekkei genkai and the issue of blood inheritance.