Kushina had dozed off at some point, and Minato had put a spare robe over her. Remus and Sirius were at least at a truce until the truth could be proven...which meant that Remus wouldn't out Sirius unless he had been proven guilty.
In which case Dementors would be the least of his problems.
Suddenly the train jerked, and the door slid open. Kushina's genin team were in another two compartments. Draco was with Crabbe and Goyle, mostly because he didn't want his pure blood reputation to take any more hits. Neville and Hermione were with the twins. Minato went to close the door...when he felt a sudden chill.
Kushina was awoken by memories of when the Kyuubi had attacked the village.
"You have got to be kidding. Are those things outside the train?!" she said sourly.
"Dementors...!" said Remus in surprise.
"Minato, you take front, I'll take back. Luna, you stay put with Professor Lupin and Black. If the dog makes any funny moves..." Kushina left the threat hanging.
Sirius had been beyond shocked when he saw Luna practicing with her brother. He had no doubt in his mind that she could take him and win.
Twin shouts of 'Expecto Patronum!' were heard as two massive patronus charms were cast.
The dementors, when they sensed such positive force, fled the area immediately. Only a few had gotten on the train, and they had almost reached the compartments.
The two made rounds of each compartment. Remus had told them chocolate got rid of the effects Dementor exposure caused, so they were distributing chocolate frogs all down the train, and with no room for argument told each student to eat it.
By the time the train had started again, Remus was seriously considering having the two act as assistants instead of being students. They handled themselves better than most children their age.
When he brought it up later with McGonagall and Flitwick, the two said it was allowed, but didn't happen often. The next morning Lupin brought it up with them and they agreed.
At the very least it gave them some time to work on the Defense Club/Class. Despite the fact that it was only created to make up for the lack of quality teaching, Remus was more than happy to keep it going.
Kushina leaned against the wall with Minato as Remus told the students that the day would have a practical lesson. Remus had told them about the boggart in the staff room.
"Let's see... Why don't we have Mr. Longbottom demonstrate for us?" said Remus.
He opened the cabinet...and out stepped Kushina, with her hair doing the nine way split speaking in her 'sweet' tone which meant she was up to something absolutely humiliating. Several people in the back shivered in unison with Neville.
"OI! How the hell am I your greatest fear?!" yelled Kushina from the side.
Minato wisely said nothing, but he was trying his best not to laugh.
"Riddikulus!" shouted Neville.
Kushina was quickly replaced by a tiny red toad. Her indignant squawk caused Minato to fall over laughing his ass off. In her rage, she pushed him towards the thing.
Suddenly the toad became a tall blond with handsome blue eyes wearing a white coat with flames. He was behind a desk...and someone kept bringing larger and larger barrels full of paperwork and piled it all around the desk. The tall man started crying anime tears, and looked like he was hoping for another Kyuubi attack just to escape the desk. On the side of his chair was a conical hat with the kanji for 'Fire' on it in white against crimson red.
Kushina took a picture and started laughing at him.
Minato looked absolutely horrified that that was his greatest fear. Not some nameless enemy nin, not some bijuu...but being stuck behind the Hokage's desk unable to use the shadow clone jutsu dealing with literal mountains of paperwork.
He took out his wand and said "Riddikulus!"
A very cheerful Kushina appeared and burned the paperwork, before dragging him to Ichiraku Ramen for lunch.
"Dude... Your greatest fear is to grow up and do paperwork?" said Ron in disbelief.
"Paperwork demons...they multiply like rabbits and they refuse to let you go!" Minato shuddered violently.
(Elsewhere in the Elemental Countries...)
In unison, all five Kages and multiple jounins all over the Elemental Countries shivered in unison as someone mentioned the very demon they were currently facing an epic battle against. Sadly they never figured out how to defeat this great and fearsome foe...
(Back at Hogwarts...)
"Well since my assistants seem so eager to join this lesson, Kushina, would you like a turn?"
She bounded up...and her boggart appeared. It wasn't her country burning, or her son being killed.
It was a massive fox easily bigger than the room with nine tails waving behind it. It sneered at her, and snapped it's massive jaws. Kushina looked irritable more than anything.
"Seriously? That was the best you could come up with out of all of the fears I could have had? I'm not afraid of him!" she said annoyed.
Her chakra chains whipped and caused the fox to bow before her. She didn't need her wand for this. The fox slowly grew smaller and smaller until she took out her wand and said "Riddikulus."
A cage slammed down around the fox, sealing away with a single tag. The fox was still bigger than Hagrid was easily, but it wasn't nearly as scary behind the cage.
"Ms. Uzumaki...what exactly was that?" said Remus.
"Kyuubi no Yoko. The Nine Tailed Fox. Out of all the things the boggart could have chose, that was one of the few things I don't fear."
Kushina knew full well the only way to temper the fox's boundless rage and hate was with love. Her chakra chains, one of the very unusual manifestations of the Uzumaki clan ability, was the reason why she could claim to be an Uzumaki in everything but blood. She had been adopted by the clan, and as far as anyone else was concerned, she was an Uzumaki. Not a Potter, which was only her name because of who her father was. It was the reason why she had changed the name legally with the goblins to Uzumaki.
Dumbledore had found that fact out the hard way, when he went to do his yearly withdrawal of the family vaults. The goblins had taken the chance to reclaim all the keys, since they had to reissue them to the name Uzumaki anyway.
Kushina was immediately alerted to the fact the old man had been stealing from her for ten years, and had reclaimed everything.
One by one, the other student took their turns.
Remus called the class a success.
Minato cursed the boggart and the nightmare it would inspire for the next week and a half.
Kushina put Neville in a playful headlock and wanted to know why she was his greatest fear.
"So, first Hogsmeade visit in a week. Did you get that thing signed?" asked Minato.
Kushina brandished the form. Petunia had signed it for her in exchange for a rare plant from Konoha that she could lord over the neighbors. Kushina had given her a rather common flower in Konoha, one that thrived in all sorts of climates, even the ones that were so frequent in Surrey.
It was a flower no one had been able to see before, and it wouldn't dominate the yard like some of the aggressive breeds.
Petunia had been very proud of the jealous looks on her friend's faces. Vernon had been happy with the alcohol that Kushina had given him as payment for allowing her to stay in his house. It was an expensive brand that one had to pay 500 pounds for the bottle alone.
Dudley was just happy that his scary cousin had left early. Kushina had it in her mind that he needed to be whipped into shape, and she had him running laps around the neighborhood at five in the morning. On the plus side, he had lost thirty pounds and was currently planning to join the school boxing team. On the downside, Kushina was ruthless.
"Any requests?" she asked Minato.
"...More frogs. I love those things!"
"You and your amphibians..." she said with fond amusement.
Minato was the only student in the school that loved the frogs simply because they were frog shaped. He often gave away his cards to other students.
Remus was currently trying to do all the homework he had assigned, with Minato and his Shadow Clone force helping out as necessary. It was for that reason alone that Remus was the only teacher in the school not complaining about assigning homework. Despite the fact that he was also helping Kushina keep up the Defense club and grading those assigned papers along with his own.
Remus was a bookworm, and he still knew the Hogwarts library like the back of his hand. So he often helped in assigning books for the students to read and write a report about.
Despite an attempted intervention by the Headmaster (who was apparently very clueless as to how his previous Defense teachers had been taken out, despite Snape's not so subtle hints) Kushina managed to make it past the dementors and headed to the village with Hermione. She didn't like the things, and the feeling was mutual.
Every time she passed by one the Kyuubi inside her reared up as if struck by something. From what Remus had told her the things feed on positive emotions, leaving only the worst memories to the victim.
So why did the Kyuubi dislike those things?
Kushina visited all sorts of places, but the ones she hit hardest were the bookstore and the candy shop. Zonko's didn't really interest her, since her pranks were much more fun to watch and used different items.
Kushina was very pleased when she found some decent fiction novels in the small bookshop. She bought doubles and had a translation charm placed on some so Naruto would learn to love reading as much as she did.
As she hit various stores, she noted with interest some out of the way shops that no one else seemed to care for. She often walked out with a massive grin as she discovered odd but highly useful things. Plus plenty of gifts for Naruto to enjoy.
Naruto had recently been told by the Hokage about his parents...and it hadn't taken him long to put two and two together about Kushina. Kushina had to write the letter explaining why she couldn't return for a few years.
At least she could pin the blame solely on the God of Death giving her an important mission. As far as the council was concerned, Kushina had been taken during the Kyuubi attack and recently woke up two years ago. She had then been given an S class mission which she couldn't refuse and was stuck on the other side of the world for the next four years.
It really sucked being in a minor's body, and some civilians around here saw through her realistic henge. The main reason being her lack of height. If it wasn't for her mission and apparent age, Kushina would have returned to Konoha in a heartbeat just to be with her son.
As it was, the only real things keeping her back at the moment were her genin team, the mission (she had an impressive completion record and had never failed one yet), and her current status as a 13 year old girl. But one of the biggest reasons was this.
Shinigami-sama told her bluntly that if she tried to bail out on the mission before she had found all three items and returned them, he would retake Minato's soul back...and he would never be reincarnated. That was more than enough reason to stay in England despite how much she hated it.
In Konoha, with Naruto...
Naruto eagerly awaited the white owl that his mother sent every other week. After the Hokage finally told him where his parents really were, Naruto's happy disposition had changed slightly.
He was no longer alone in the world. He had parents that loved him. So what if they were on a long term mission? They still wrote him at least twice a month. Even if his dad would only go by Minnie the Mighty...a nickname his mother had apparently given him.
(One that had the Hokage choking back laughter.)
Now Naruto could proudly walk down the street saying he had parents that loved him and didn't think he was a demon. The odd dreams he had of a red haired woman (who was in fact his mother, which he figured out on his own after Sarutobi showed him a picture of the woman) had only made the fact that his parents loved him more real.
It certainly got rid of the pain he felt whenever the other kids teased him about not having parents. Plus there were the gifts that his mom kept sending him. Mostly it was books (which to the pleasure of Iruka caused him to learn to love reading) and a few odd items.
Like the large frog doll that he now slept on instead of his lumpy bed. The mouth would open up revealing a nice comfy sleeping bag that he snuggled in. Plus, when Kushina was told of his problems getting food other than instant ramen, the woman started to send food he could eat.
(These deliveries were sent via storage scroll, where the food couldn't get ruined through the different climates.)
It was through his mother that he came into contact with Anko Mitarashi, a woman most people avoided if possible. Well, except for the owners of all the best dango stands.
Anko rather liked the kid, once she got to know him. Even if his mother did bribe her with the biggest damn snake outside the Forest of Death, complete with sealed Mystic Eyes and the deadliest venom she had ever encountered with no antidote.
As a result, the looks and glares towards the kid started to drop. Mostly because now he had someone watching out for him since his parents weren't around. The Hokage had told the council that Naruto's parents weren't dead, but they had been assigned a long term S class mission that was classified. That alone shut up some of the plans that Danzo had for the boy.
If his parents were in fact alive and on an S class mission, they had to be jounin level at the very least. And with parents, the Hokage heard a decrease in the number of civilian complaints.
A demon container with parents meant that they could charge a large price tag to the adults. The Hokage, however, did something else with them whenever he got the ridiculous bills for something other than Naruto just existing.
He gave them to the Uchiha kids who just learned the fireball technique to practice on. Needless to say the children had great fun burning things with the Hokage's permission.
