"People suffer within their means."

I said that once, to Hinata-sama, a phrase out of many to make her see the helpless and static nature of a fate-bound humanity, to make her feel all the more keenly her own failings, the weaknesses she'd been born with and to as an underachieving daughter of the hated head family Hyuuga. To crush her, and show the world the suffering that is written often for the weak but just as easily for the strong...

It is a phrase that says that, struggle as you may, you will remain what you are, loser or genius, weak or strong of talent or personality.

In some ways it is true... I will never beat Shikamaru at Go, and he will never beat me in Taijutsu. I could study the games of masters for a decade, and he study under Gai for as long, and the results would not be very different when we returned to test each other again.

But I have beaten a genius whose level of technique and battle-skill surpassed my own, and been defeated by a boy of obscure, if tangible talent.

I carry a seal that says I am nothing, but a purpose that says I am everything. Hinata-sama will never be her father, but she still has strength.

Because we suffered within our means, and they are not as narrow nor our struggles as futile as I had once imagined.