After confirming the S-Rank and A-Rank ninjas, Charles eagerly looked toward the remaining recruitment pool:
- S-Rank: Tsunade (100 shards)
- A-Rank: Raging Obito, Cursed Mark Sasuke (Shippuden) (40 shards)
- B-Rank: Naruto (Shippuden), Sakura (Shippuden), Sasuke (Shippuden), Asura Path Pain, Neji Hyuga (Shippuden), Animal Path Pain (40 shards)
- C-Rank: Hanabi Hyuga, Mabui, Ino Yamanaka, Ninja Academy Naruto, Shikamaru Nara, Hayate Gekko, Shino Aburame, Kosuke Maruboshi, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, Iruka Umino, Shizune, Sasuke Uchiha, Tenten (10 shards)
As Charles browsed the recruitment pool, he noticed two of Pain's six paths—Asura Path and Animal Path—were available in the B-Rank category.
Although it was only two of the paths, these were among the more offensive ones.
However, Charles was curious: if he recruited these two, how would Nagato control the bodies? Would his soul descend into both simultaneously?
Without the Naraka Path, how would the bodies be repaired if destroyed? Would they simply be reset?
Only by recruiting them would he know for sure.
In the C-Rank category, Mabui, the assistant to the Fourth Raikage from the Cloud Village, was a new addition. The rest of the characters had little change.
After reviewing the updated pool, Charles was satisfied. The new ninjas were strong and filled in several gaps in his roster's abilities.
Glancing at his remaining 307,330 coins, Charles calculated that it would be more than enough to recruit the newly added ninjas and unlock their battle slots.
He purchased 200 ninja recruitment scrolls for 33,600 coins and prepared to begin summoning.
Satisfied, he exited the system interface and began setting up a blessing ritual to ensure good fortune during the summon.
Using magic, Charles drew a Merlin's blessing circle on the ground. From his storage, he retrieved the Space Stone, Reality Stone, Loki's scepter, and the Dragon Ring, placing them at four corners. In the center, he lit a candle.
The quality of the ritual items had improved significantly this time, and he hoped the blessing would last longer.
Once everything was in place, Charles began his prayer:
After finishing, Charles felt a surge of good luck and immediately returned to the system space to begin recruiting.
Standing before the recruitment screen, Charles didn't hesitate and selected the option for 100 recruits.
A swirling Uzumaki symbol appeared on the screen, glowing brightly. After a flash of light, the results of the 100 summons appeared before Charles.
As the recruiting session ended, Charles felt the blessing's effect dissipate. He had hoped to extend the good luck through multiple rounds, but the 100-recruit session had completely exhausted the blessing.
Now that the blessing was gone, Charles focused on reviewing the results.
- S-Rank: Tsunade—recruited 16 times, yielding 45 shards.
- A-Rank: Raging Obito—recruited 5 times, yielding 17 shards. Cursed Mark Sasuke—recruited 6 times, yielding 21 shards.
- B-Rank: Naruto (Shippuden)—recruited 5 times, yielding 11 shards. Sakura (Shippuden)—recruited once, yielding 2 shards. Sasuke (Shippuden)—recruited 2 times, yielding 4 shards. Asura Path Pain—recruited 7 times, yielding 1 full card and 24 shards. Neji Hyuga (Shippuden)—recruited 6 times, yielding 10 shards. Animal Path Pain—recruited 5 times, yielding 14 shards. Gaara—recruited once, yielding 2 shards.
Satisfied with his recruitment results, Charles felt confident about his team's future.
C-Rank Ninjas:
- Hanabi Hyuga: Recruited twice, earned 2 shards.
- Mabui: Recruited five times, earned 8 shards.
- Ino Yamanaka: Recruited six times, earned 11 shards.
- Ninja Academy Naruto: Recruited five times, earned 10 shards.
- Shikamaru Nara: Recruited once, earned 1 shard.
- Hayate Gekko: Recruited six times, earned 8 shards.
- Shino Aburame: Recruited twice, earned 4 shards.
- Kosuke Maruboshi: Recruited four times, earned 1 full card and 4 shards.
- Naruto Uzumaki: Recruited twice, earned 2 shards.
- Sakura Haruno: Recruited four times, earned 7 shards.
- Iruka Umino: Recruited three times, earned 4 shards.
- Shizune: Recruited twice, earned 2 shards.
- Sasuke Uchiha: Recruited once, earned 1 shard.
- Tenten: Recruited once, earned 1 shard.
- Rock Lee: Recruited once, earned 2 shards.
After tallying his gains, Charles was extremely pleased with the results. Besides the guaranteed S-Rank ninja fragments, he had recruited Asura Path Pain and obtained a full Kosuke Maruboshi card.
Particularly notable was the full Asura Path card, saving him 40 shards, which would have required around 20 recruitments.
In total, Charles gained 83 fragments across A-Rank and S-Rank ninjas, which was a significant result. He estimated that within two months, he would be able to fully recruit both S-Rank and A-Rank ninjas.
Additionally, Hayate Gekko and B-Rank ninja Neji Hyuga had met the recruitment criteria, meaning Charles could recruit four new ninjas.
Even the weakest among them, Hayate Gekko, held the strength of a Special Jonin, while Kosuke Maruboshi was an Elite Jonin.
After a quick glance at Tsunade in the recruitment screen, Charles navigated to his ninja roster.
At this point, the recruitment icons for Asura Path Pain, Neji Hyuga (Shippuden), Hayate Gekko, and Kosuke Maruboshi were fully illuminated, indicating they were ready for recruitment.
Charles first selected Asura Path Pain.
- B-Rank: Asura Path Pain, shards 64/40. Recruit?
Recruit!
Ding! Congratulations, Charles Doyle, you have successfully recruited a two-star B-Rank ninja, Asura Path Pain.
The next moment, a scene appeared before Charles, showing the Asura Path Pain standing in the Rain Village's underground base, dressed in Akatsuki robes, with a Rain Village headband, gazing ahead intently.
Looking at Asura Path Pain, Charles wondered if this would just be a puppet under his control.
He opened the ninja's details to check its skills:
Asura Path Pain: B-Rank Ninja, Two-Star
Basic Attack: Taijutsu + Hand Cannon
Substitution Jutsu: Wood Substitution
Skills:
Strange Arm Rockets: Fires five missiles from the fingers to attack the enemy.
Strange Arm Blades: Sends out a hook to pull the enemy toward him, then impales them with spikes from his fingers.
Asura Mode: Transforms into a human artillery tower, launching a barrage of missiles, and finishes with a laser beam from the head.
After reviewing Asura Path's abilities, Charles nodded, satisfied that there were no significant issues. However, he still wondered what abilities he himself would gain.
Upon recruiting the ninja, Charles's chakra reserves increased by 5 units, bringing his total to 462 units of chakra.
However, to his disappointment, he did not gain the Rinnegan nor any of Asura Path's special abilities—only the chakra increase.
Seeing this, Charles speculated it might be because the Six Paths of Pain were merely Nagato's puppets.
With no surprise but no major disappointment, Charles shifted his focus to recruiting Neji Hyuga (Shippuden).