A Spirit Force That's Too Low

Too low.

The mental energy is simply too low.

In all the years Hyuga Hoshishaku had used the system's inspection function, this was the first time he had seen such a low mental energy stat.

Even the most elderly member of the Hyuga Clan.

The person with the lowest mental energy he had ever encountered still possessed 85 points.

Yet Yuto's 40 points of mental energy paired with 2,700 points of vitality was far too discordant.

Coupled with the boy's own account of his spirit growing weaker by the day.

Hyuga Hoshishaku quickly pinpointed the primary cause discovered thus far.

His mental energy could not keep up with his physique!

But what was the use of discovering it?

Hoshishaku thought, feeling deeply troubled.

"Brother Hoshishaku, are you spacing out?"

Yuto waved his small hand in front of Hoshishaku's eyes.

Hoshishaku grabbed the small hand, temporarily abandoning his fruitless line of thought.

"Yeah, I was thinking about some things, so I got a bit distracted. By the way, what do you usually do when you're bored?"

Senju Yuto poked his fingers together and said naively:

"Aside from sleeping, I usually just wander around the courtyard with Mother, or learn Sealing Technique from her."

Hoshishaku was somewhat surprised.

This life was far too monotonous.

He pondered for a moment, deciding to first build a rapport with his mission target before slowly considering how to complete the task.

Thus, he prepared to tell an adventure story.

Telling stories was a low-cost, high-efficiency method that wouldn't consume actual energy while effectively stimulating a child's curiosity.

"Then let me share an adventure story with you. Do you want to hear it?"

Curiosity flickered in Senju Yuto's eyes:

"An adventure story? Is it one of those ninja adventure stories from the Warring States period?"

Hoshishaku gave a disdainful scoff: "Adventure stories from the Warring States period are completely outdated. I'll tell you a fresh story that appeared in my dreams."

Senju Yuto clapped his hands excitedly: "Okay, okay! What kind of story is it?"

Hoshishaku took a sip of the hot tea the servant had just refilled and began to speak slowly: "This is a story about a monkey that popped out of a stone."

Inside the Hokage building.

A water mirror was synchronously displaying the scene of Hoshishaku telling the story to Yuto.

His youthful voice drifted through as well.

"...Although being a Monkey King was very happy, he also encountered many complex problems. So, he began to ponder: how could he protect his monkey friends forever?"

"He realized that staying in one place wouldn't help him find the answer, so he temporarily bid farewell to Flower Fruit Mountain, boarded a small boat heading toward the unknown, and drifted across the extremely dangerous ocean..."

The three adults were all listening to the story in silence.

The worried expressions they had worn while failing to reach a conclusion earlier were gradually softening.

"Even a little stone monkey knows that when you encounter a problem, you cannot just stand still. How could I just stand still?"

Senju Tobirama muttered to himself.

Beside him, Senju Hashirama was listening to the story with complete absorption; his engaged expression was exactly the same as Yuto's in the water mirror.

Uzumaki Mito spoke up to comfort her brother-in-law: "You can't call it standing still. You have truly exhausted every method for Yuto; didn't you just research many advanced medical ninjutsu recently?"

Senju Tobirama scratched his head: "But that kid Hoshishaku just said that Yuto's mental energy is lower than an ordinary person's. What kind of situation is this, and how did he even know..."

Uzumaki Mito thought for a moment and said: "Shall we ask him once Yuto falls asleep later? After all, he is the first person to discover that Yuto has a problem."

By this time, Hyuga Hoshishaku's story had reached the "Slanting Moon and Three Stars Cave."

Senju Hashirama glanced at the clock in the Hokage office, his expression gradually turning to one of surprise.

Seeing her husband's reaction, Uzumaki Mito also realized something and began to stare intently at the water mirror.

But when Hoshishaku spoke of "the little stone monkey arduously arriving at the Slanting Moon and Three Stars Cave to seek a master, being repeatedly rejected, and finally moving the patriarch with his sincerity after a long wait."

He continued to "being bestowed the name Sun Wukong, signifying his birth from stone and his future possession of the power to overturn rivers and seas."

And then to "Sun Wukong not starting to learn skills immediately, but beginning with basic words and language, the principles of being a person, and the distinction between right and wrong."

Finally, more than an hour later, he reached the part about "sneaking out in the middle of the night to learn the Seventy-Two Transformations and the Somersault Cloud."

Only then did Uzumaki Mito gasp: "Yuto has already pushed past his usual time by nearly two hours without falling unconscious!"

As she spoke, her tears fell continuously, and it was only when her husband pulled her into his arms that she began to sob softly.

For a moment, the Hokage's office was deathly quiet, save for the sound of Uzumaki Mito's weeping and the voice of Hyuga Hoshishaku telling a story through the water mirror.

In the image, the eyes of Senju Yuto were terrifyingly bright.

He seemed to have immersed himself in the monkey's perspective, experiencing these fantastical adventures firsthand.

It was not until he heard that Sun Wukong had been expelled from his master's tutelage that his emotions fluctuated violently, and with a roll of his eyes, he actually fainted!

Hoshishaku's voice, raised by three octaves, drifted from the water mirror: "Oh no! Yuto, what's wrong with you?!"

Senju Tobirama dispersed the water mirror and vanished from the spot in an instant.

Senju Hashirama comforted his wife: "It's alright, Yuto will definitely be fine. Now that the problem has been identified, Tobirama will surely be able to cure him."

Over at the Senju Clan Grounds, just as Yuto fainted, Senju Tobirama walked in, picked him up, and carried him to the bedroom.

Hyuga Hoshishaku followed anxiously behind, and only after seeing Yuto settled did he ask his master, Tobirama: "What is wrong with him? Why did he faint? Shouldn't we send him to the Konoha Hospital?"

Senju Tobirama pulled the door shut and sighed: "Alas, it's an old ailment. He can only stay awake for a few hours a day, and the time he remains conscious is growing shorter and shorter."

After answering the question, he looked down at the child, whose eyes were filled with worry, and spoke:

"Come with me. I need your help with something."

Following that, Hoshishaku walked into the room with his master and began to discuss the topic of Senju Yuto.

"I have heard that you can perceive the chakra, life force, and spiritual energy of others?"

Senju Tobirama got straight to the point.

Hoshishaku nodded: "Yes, I can perceive them."

Detecting no trace of a lie, Senju Tobirama carefully questioned Hoshishaku about the state of his nephew's life force and spiritual energy before falling into deep thought.

"What exactly is spiritual energy?"

He muttered unconsciously.

Hoshishaku joined in the speculation.

After all, since this concerned a mission request, there was no need for him to pretend to be a naive, ignorant child.

"Could it be related to Yin-style chakra?"

He suddenly spoke up.

"If you think about it carefully, the Yamanaka Clan's Mind Transfer Jutsu is an application of Yin-style chakra. And the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan—I suspect it also relies on mental stimulation of Yin-style chakra to achieve awakening."

"Therefore, I believe spiritual energy might be related to Yin-style chakra."

Senju Tobirama stared at Hyuga Hoshishaku with burning eyes.

He tapped his fingertips against the tabletop, pondered for a moment, and pressed further: "So you believe Yuto's spiritual energy is too low and needs to be increased?"

Hoshishaku said earnestly: "I certainly cannot be certain, as my knowledge is still insufficient. I cannot even guarantee whether such low spiritual energy indicates a problem with his soul."

"But I can guarantee that if spiritual energy could be quantified in silver, then among everyone I have seen, the spiritual energy of an ordinary person is one hundred taels; only very elderly people drop to around eighty-five taels. You and Lady Mito have spiritual energy reaching an astonishing several hundred taels. Yet, Yuto is the only exception, possessing only forty taels. It is truly inconceivable."

"His life force is several hundred times his spiritual energy. I feel there is a very high probability that the problem lies right there."