Koyuki looked on from the sidelines as the shinobi stared in awe at Hashirama and Tobirama. Their battle prowess was unmatched on the field. She had made significant improvement after her arrival, but the fact remained that she could never surpass them while they were still alive.

She watched as the medic-nin showered Nee-sama with praise for her talent in fuinjutsu, the art of sealing.

Genius, prodigy, talented, and gifted were all words casually thrown around when mentioning them. Most only saw their brilliance. It was those close to them who truly saw the blood, sweat, and tears.

Toka had once complained of the way some of the shinobi spoke about her cousins. "I mean, I know they don't mean harm or anything but it's a little annoying. Jeez, it's like all they see is their power and not the——"

"— —effort they put in to get to where they are?"

"Yeah, that's it! Toka exclaimed, slamming her right fist into her left palm. Wait, how did you…?" she inquired, her eyes narrowing.

Scratching her head, Koyuki answered"I guess I kinda knew someone like that when I was younger. So I guess we're both in the same boat." Toka sighed and sipped her tea. Koyuki's eyes drifted elsewhere as she recalled the first things her sensei had told her.

Koyuki, remember this. A person with no talent can still achieve greatness with hard work, but a talented person will amount to nothing without hard work. Talent may set you apart from others, but what truly sends you soaring above everyone else is hard work.

It was true. She had seen it. Hell, she had even experienced it for herself.

Professor Warwick was right. Every genius had to put in hard work. As a child, she had visited the mainland a couple of times.

Hashirama and Tobirama had trained until their younger brother begged them to stop. Even during her stay on the mainland, Koyuki had rarely seen the brothers except at mealtimes. After all, they rarely had much free time outside of training.

She had often seen them training till they were covered in cuts and bruises. Some of them were still visible today.

Besides, if Koyuki's memory served her right, their training had only increased in intensity as they grew up.

Mito nee-sama didn't sit around to become a sealing grandmaster either. She too had burned the midnight oil more times than she could count. She too had practiced until she collapsed, often sustaining multiple injuries.

While she was studying, she sometimes attached a pulley to her long red hair. On the other end of the pulley was a large brick. Every time she dozed off, the brick would violently tug at her hair. Sometimes she would yelp in pain but over time, she stopped yelping every time the rope tugged at her hair.She just got up and continued studying.

Like the rest of them, Koyuki was no stranger to hard work. She recalled holding back her screams as her charred hands were bandaged again and again from hours upon hours of chakra control exercises. She remembered dancing alongside Emily until her stockings were dyed with dried blood. She recalled her teachers constantly pushing her to her breaking point. She had sparred with Emily until every bone in her body had been broken and healed. Mina-sensei had trained her eyes until they cried tears of blood. Koyuki remembered working while studying at the same time just to earn enough money to go to university. Most of the scars had healed but the pain was very much real.

All that hard work and still some people dismissed it, saying they were just born lucky. That was what everyone said. Hashirama-sama was lucky to be blessed with a kekkei gekkai. Tobirama-sama was born a natural genius. Mito's born from the main family, of course, she's better than us. That foreigner Koyuki was lucky to have such good genes.

They were born lucky, but no one would see their hard work, just the fruits of it.

A/N:These get posted when I have time, which isn't now.