As You Command, Commissar!

Jiraiya's anxious shout echoed over the training ground, but Naruto turned a deaf ear.

The black mist pouring from the summoning array showed no sign of dispersing. Instead, it grew thicker and thicker, writhing and contracting as though alive. The air filled with the choking rusty stench of gunpowder smoke mixed with old blood. Jiraiya and Hinata instinctively held their breath. That smell did not belong to any battlefield in this world.

At the heart of the black mist, a silhouette gradually took shape.

At last, the mist was completely forced apart and absorbed by a tall figure. A man simply appeared in the center of the array.

He wore a set of dark green standard-issue armor, bizarre in design and full of hard-edged industrial angles, its surface covered in scratches and old damage. He held a black long-barreled weapon, rough and vicious in design, its muzzle large enough to fit a fist inside. His face was lined by weather and marred by savage scars, his eyes wary and fierce. Like a beast that had crawled out of a meat grinder, he radiated a murderous aura that warned all strangers to stay away.

Every muscle in Jiraiya's body tensed.

He could not sense the slightest flow of chakra from this man. Not even a trace. Yet that only made his heart pound harder. That pure killing intent, steeped in mountains of corpses and seas of blood, was denser and more absolute than anything he had felt from any villain or criminal.

Another monster.

Instinctively, he assumed a combat stance, his hands already forming seals, ready to summon Bunta at any moment. He shouted sharply at Naruto, "Naruto! What is that thing? Dismiss it now!"

The summoned man, Karsten, looked around in confusion. Sunlight, trees, fresh air—everything was utterly unlike the eternal gray sky filled with artillery fire and wailing that he remembered. He growled in a rough, hoarse language that Jiraiya and Hinata could not understand at all, "Where the hell is this? Some kind of psyker witchcraft trick?"

His gaze swiftly swept over the horrified Jiraiya and the pale-faced Hinata before finally settling on Naruto, who stood closest to him.

He looked like nothing more than a harmless blond brat.

But in an unfamiliar environment, anything unknown was a threat. Karsten's soldierly instincts made him raise his weapon without hesitation, the massive black muzzle aimed directly at Naruto's head.

"Naruto!" Hinata screamed, her Byakugan activating instantly in terror.

Jiraiya's heart leaped into his throat as well, and he was about to strike without regard for anything else.

At that critical moment, Naruto moved.

He did not retreat, nor did he form hand seals. He even ignored Jiraiya's warning. Facing the pitch-black muzzle, he took a step forward.

He spoke in that same rough language, his tone unquestionable and carrying the authority of a superior.

"Lower your weapon, soldier."

The voice was not loud, yet it exploded in Karsten's mind like a thunderclap.

Karsten shuddered from head to toe.

That voice... Though it sounded very young, the sense of authority engraved deep into his soul—the authority of the very top of the chain of command—was incomparably familiar. It was the voice that had supported them through countless trenches, before every charge, and in their most desperate moments, keeping them fighting.

He looked hesitantly at the blond boy before him. The muzzle lowered slightly, while his eyes filled with confusion and suspicion.

"Who are you? How do you speak Imperial Gothic?"

Naruto looked calmly into his eyes. In his ice-blue pupils was reflected Karsten's face, etched with suspicion and hardship.

"Karsten Raine, corporal of Third Company, 101st Regiment, Cadian Shock Troops." Naruto's voice was steady and clear, as if reading from a file. "During the Siege of Tarans, your left leg was hit by shrapnel from a Bolter wielded by the Chaos Space Marines. I was the one who dragged you out from beneath the pile of corpses."

Every word was like a sledgehammer slamming into Karsten's heart.

His pupils contracted sharply to pinpoints.

Those details—details known only to him and that lord! The old wound in his left leg now began to ache faintly from his agitation. Trembling, he stared fixedly at the twelve-year-old boy before him, as though trying to see through that young shell to the awe-inspiring figure who had once led them to victory again and again amid gunfire and shelling, with icy words and eyes of steel.

"Your standard-issue Bolter is a Lucius Pattern 97. There is an 'A' carved into the stock, the initial of your deceased daughter Emily's name."

"On the right side of the gun, three centimeters above the trigger, there is a scratch about two finger-widths long. On the third day of the Siege of Tarans, a ricochet struck there. You spent three nights filing down the burrs, all while complaining that it had ruined the weapon's balance."

"In your left boot, you have an Imperial Tarot card hidden away—The Star. Sergeant Mina slipped it to you before charging into the Chaos position. It was the last thing on her that could still be considered intact."

Karsten's lips trembled. From his throat came a nearly distorted word, filled with boundless reverence and disbelief.

"Com... Commissar?"

Naruto gave a slight nod.

"The Emperor's will has brought us together again."

Boom!

That confirmation, like a final order, instantly shattered all of Karsten's doubts and guard.

In an instant, he cast off all hostility and lowered the vicious weapon known as a Bolter. He snapped his feet together, his heels striking the ground with a heavy thud. Then he straightened his back with all his strength and gave Naruto a flawless standard military salute.

The motion was so swift that his worn armor gave a sharp clatter.

"Commissar! Soldier Karsten reporting for duty!"

His roar was loud and powerful, filled with the excitement of surviving disaster and the absolute loyalty of finding his place once more.

The training ground fell into dead silence.

Jiraiya and Hinata stared dumbfoundedly at the completely incomprehensible scene.

Although they could not understand a single word of that strange language, what they had just witnessed was more shocking than any explanation.

The man who had been fierce and murderous only seconds ago, ready to open fire at any moment, had undergone a heaven-shaking reversal after exchanging only a few words with Naruto.

That reverence was not an act. It was absolutely pure and sincere.

Jiraiya's mind went blank.

Had he been caught in a genjutsu? Impossible.

He was a genjutsu expert himself. Everything before him was undeniably real.

What the hell was going on?

Minato's son... What had he experienced all these years? Commissar? What was that supposed to be?

Jiraiya scratched his head, feeling completely at his wit's end.

Hinata also stared blankly at Naruto's back, wondering what he had gone through in places she could not see. It must have been so difficult.

Naruto ignored the two petrified people behind him.

He looked at the soldier standing ramrod straight before him and issued a new command in Imperial Gothic.

"At ease, Karsten. This is not a war zone. It is my hometown."

"Yes, sir!" Karsten answered decisively, though his body remained taut.

Naruto examined him and the Bolter in his hands, his brow creasing almost imperceptibly.

"Your equipment... How are your supplies?"

At the mention of that, bitterness appeared on Karsten's face. "Reporting, sir, very poorly. Our regiment has been cut off from the main force for too long. I only have three magazines left for my Bolter. The power pack is nearly depleted as well."

Naruto nodded.

An Astra Militarum veteran with only three magazines remaining.

Was this the mystery of Summoning Jutsu?

It had directly and randomly "anchored" a unit from another universe's timeline—one that had once shared a deep bond with his soul.

This could no longer be explained by chakra and ninjutsu.

He turned around and looked at the utterly stunned Jiraiya.

"Pervy Sage," Naruto said calmly, "your technique is very useful."

Jiraiya's mouth twitched. He had no inclination to argue over the form of address right now. He only wanted to know what the hell was happening.

"Naruto... This... This is...?"

Naruto did not answer directly. Instead, he looked at Karsten and spoke in Imperial Gothic again. "Karsten, show this... ally your weapon."

"As you command, Commissar!"

Karsten stepped forward and held out the vicious Bolter to Jiraiya.

Jiraiya instinctively took half a step back, eyeing the "hunk of iron" warily.

Naruto explained indifferently, "His name is Karsten. He was once my subordinate. The weapon in his hands is called a Bolter, a kind of... large-caliber ninja tool."

"A ninja tool?" Jiraiya felt his worldview being ground into the dirt.

"Find a target," Naruto told Karsten. "Show him what it can do."

Karsten accepted the order, looked around, and finally aimed his weapon at a massive training boulder at the edge of the field, tall enough to reach a person's waist.

He expertly disengaged the safety and pulled the trigger.

There was no deafening blast. Only a dull pfft, like compressed air being released in an instant.

The next second, under Jiraiya and Hinata's horrified gazes, the solid boulder silently... exploded.

It was not shattered by impact. It exploded from within, torn apart by a brutal force and reduced to powder that filled the air.