After the destruction of the Department of Mysteries (and a few minor departments no one particularly cared about or knew) Voldemort took the chance and claimed he had done the deed, which annoyed Kushina, even if she decided to allow that ruse to continue.
Hey, she didn't want to get arrested for destroying several Departments, and she sure as hell wasn't paying the damages.
With the fact he was back now fully out in the open, the magical world was in something of a panic. Then the murders started to happen...only it wasn't on the end of the innocent muggleborns.
Death Eaters began showing up dead or injured badly enough that the Aurors could literally chuck them into cells without any trouble at least once every other day. Someone was cleaning out the magical communities and not giving Voldemort a chance to really kick off his private war with Dumbledore.
And between the two sides, only one had a good idea who was doing the attacking.
Kushina took a long shower in Longbottom Manor. Augusta was more than happy to help the war effort, especially since Kushina's methods were actually doing something. As payment for allowing them to use their family home as a base, Kushina and the others took out the Lestrange trio first.
Narcissa wasn't happy about her sister being killed, but she at least admitted that the woman had died quick. Kushina told her that she had killed her without causing any real pain, and that she never bothered to torture or interrogate her. Considering how insane Bellatrix was, and how worse it had gotten because of Azkaban, it was the best they could do.
Once she was done, she joined Neville in their daily strategy meeting. Outside, several large foxes patrolled the area, not letting any odd smells go unchecked. In the lake, the toads kept an eye above and below. With the wards and seals around the manor, it was far more secure than Grimmauld place.
Kushina had moved Walpurga with the other portraits, and to everyone's surprise, she got along famously with Augusta. Apparently the both had problems with Molly attitude. Which, when Kushina thought about it, made a lot of sense.
Molly had entered Walpurga's home and acted like she owned the place. She was rude, and a bad guest. And the way she treated the family heirlooms would have angered even the most civil host. Kushina tried to get along with her, but the fact was that the woman coddled those below the age of twenty and had the voice of a harpy. It was a miracle Arthur was still married to her.
(Strangely enough, she got along with Arthur just fine.)
Kushina looked at her genin, who by now could at least be called low level chunin. Their attacks on the Death Eaters had changed them, helping them to mature into their own person. Draco was now a skilled interrogator that Ibiki would be delighted to have on his team.
It had come as a real shock to everyone in Slytherin that Draco firmly stood against the Dark Lord, who his father served faithfully in the last war. But when they learned who he sided with, they understood.
"So what do we have for tomorrow?" asked Kushina.
"We hit the Macnair family tomorrow. Crabbe and Goyle's little show of siding with us made it a lot easier to find the hide outs. Their fathers thought that they would join them, but they are more loyal to me," said Draco.
It had come as little surprise when the two bodyguards who originally followed Draco everywhere decided to join their side instead of Voldemort. Kushina had been nothing but kind to them, even helping with homework or improving their fighting ability. And Draco was the only friend they knew they could trust, and he often defended them, even when they said something that was incorrect. He didn't berate them if they didn't understand.
After the initial meeting with the Dark Lord, who had been in a foul mood that day and had actually hurt Goyle, the two wanted nothing to do with him. They didn't want to join someone they didn't respect.
Kushina had welcomed them with open arms, and got them started on how to mold chakra and some advanced taijutsu forms. She didn't berate or mock them when they did it wrong. She just corrected them gently and told them why that form worked the way it did. As a result they were as loyal to her as they were to Draco.
"Which families are we hitting this month?" asked Minato. Selene and Xeno had agreed to go to Konoha with Sirius, to meet Minato's son Naruto. The kid would be real happy with his expanding family...and the fact that they planned to spoil him rotten.
"We're paying a visit to the Zabini, Nott, Greengrass, Moon, and Perks families to see where their allegiance lays. We've sent them a warning ahead, so they should be easy to deal with. The Bones girls would like to speak to you, and from what I understand the Abbots, Patils, Changs, and Wood families will be there as well," said Draco.
"When is this?"
"Next week, after we deal with the MacNair family and see how Durmstrang turns out. Beauxbatons has already sent a letter ahead saying that they will only join the fight if Dumbledore has nothing to do with our operations. Even then the most they will do is send their older students to help," said Hermione.
"I heard Dumbledore wanted to send Madame Maxime with Hagrid to speak to the giants," said Neville.
"Good thing we converted him to our side second year," said Kushina.
She rolled out a map, and the lot of them planned which part of the country to hit and when. Her plan was simple enough.
Take out the inner circle, which left only the new recruits who weren't so good at aiming their spells. Hell, most of them still had trouble casting the Unforgivables!
It had the added benefit of robbing Voldemort of his financial backing. With the loss of the Malfoy fortune, he had taken a real hit.
Kushina did a duck and roll out of the floo, which was one of her least favorite ways to travel. She could tolerate apparition, but she hated port keys and floo.
At once, over 20 wands were pointed at her.
She got out of the way, unconcerned.
"Prove you are Ms. Uzumaki," said Amelia Bones. She wasn't taking any chances.
Kushina merely thought of what the civilian council did to her son before she sent people to properly take care of him until her mission was over. Her KI raised along with her hair, which did the usual nine way split.
"It's her Auntie," said Susan.
"Yeah, no one else can do that weird thing with their hair, or have such a scary aura like that," said Hannah.
Kushina watched them all carefully. They appeared to be the families she was here to meet. Behind her was Minato, Neville and Luna. Draco and Hermione were busy brewing healing and truth potions.
"So...I assume you wish to know why I am not siding with the old goat?" she said calmly.
"Among other things. I for one would like to know if you are the one responsible for the sudden increase in deaths among the pure blood factions," said Amelia Bones.
"Mostly me...and my team. I, unlike that manipulative old goat, intend to end this war without involving innocents and using half assed tactics," said Kushina.
"Why? Why would the Girl-Who-Lived act so...ruthlessly?" asked what she assumed was the Patils father.
Kushina laughed, her amusement evident.
"Because I'm not a teenager at all. The idiot who runs the school pulled me from another time without realizing it. The only reason I look sixteen is because the ritual he used force my body to revert into over half my actual age. I wasn't exactly pleased to go through puberty a second time, I can tell you."
That got quite a few chuckles from the women in the room.
"How old are you really?" asked Amelia.
"I'm in my thirties. The blond boy behind me is about a year or so older than I am, and would have remained that way if Shinigami-sama hadn't placed his soul into an infant so he could be my back up."
One of the Asians in the back, probably the Changs, spoke up.
"You know the God of Death? Personally?" asked the older male. Probably Cho's father. Cho and Cedric Diggory had moved out of the country after their wedding a month after leaving school...Kushina had appeared near the edge of it to keep the Death Eaters from interfering.
Kushina nodded.
"I assume you all know of the Deathly Hallows? Or at least heard the tale of three brothers who were all granted a boon from the God of Death?"
Most of the people nodded.
"Shinigami-sama decided to make the best of an irritating situation when he realized I had missed my time to die in my own time. So he asked me to retrieve those items for him in exchange for a free ride back to my homeland in the East. And when I informed him of the soul pieces that the Dark Lord made, he asked me to deal with those as well, since they are an affront to nature and go against his order...not to mention the paperwork for even one of those is so bad that it actually makes him cry just thinking about it..." said Kushina.
That got a chuckle from Amelia Bones. She had cases that bad once.
Kushina answered all their questions, being as truthful as she could. That seemed to make the families very happy, because every time they tried to talk to Dumbledore about the war the best they could hope for was half answers or outright lies.
Amelia took the fact that Kushina killed the Death Eaters with grace. When the girl told her who really took out the Department of Mysteries, she looked very annoyed but she wasn't going to arrest the two on the spot. The fact was that in doing so she denied Voldemort what he was after, even if she didn't learn that bit until after. They found her tactics, while brutal, rather refreshing.
The old Order, of which Amelia was very well aware of and ignored any an all orders from the Minister to get rid of them, was in truth rather useless.
They had a poor system of getting information, their approach was so half hearted that it was almost useless, and their methods of recruiting was so bad it was a miracle that anyone even joined. And they never acted in a timely manner with the information they did have!
It had annoyed Amelia greatly that even with the so called Great Dumbledore leading them, they were so useless in real life!
Which was probably why Kushina had taken to leaving a different calling card on the bases they demolished. When asked why she was so strong by Hermione, Kushina finally told them of what was inside her.
Finding out that she had a Great Demon Fox inside of her was surprising, but not enough that their trust in her changed any. With that kind of thing inside her, taking out the Dark Lord was much, much easier and realistic.
By the time she left, she had more supporters to help ease the magical communities into a much more stable century. Neville would prove to be a strong leader for the magical world after she left.
Draco had no intention of remaining in a place where he was somewhat expected to marry someone who was likely his second cousin or at least related to him rather closely. Hermione was more interested in learning all she could about seals, jutsu and Bijuu in general. She knew full well there wasn't much she could do for a few decades at least in the magical world, which was the main reason she was joining Kushina when she left.
Besides, the moment she learned the War was beginning again, she convinced her parents to move to the village. They were rather surprised to learn that while the Village boasted several medical benefits, they didn't have dentists.
They were currently running a very successful practice in Konoha, and their skills were in much higher demand.
Luna, of course would follow her brother anywhere. Her parents were already delighted to have a grandson to spoil rotten, and Naruto was no longer starved for attention. Xeno had decided to expand on his magazine and created a new one that made it easier for shinobi to get the latest rumors. It was made so that one had to use chakra just to read the good stuff, which made it much harder for civilians to hear something they shouldn't.
As it stood, Jiraiya was rather quick to help fund that project, and he started sending reports to Sarutobi through the magazine...along with another contact which only the old man was aware of.
Crabbe and Goyle, who had already figured out that because of their parents affiliations with the Dark Lord that they would have no other place to go in the magical world, decided to join Draco. At the very least people wouldn't look down on them for not being very bright in Konoha.
It was during the fifth base attack that she had a run in with Voldemort. He was still rather pissed about the prophecy ambush...and the graveyard incident. He had started to send his Death Eaters out to retrieve his soul pieces...only to find little notes with a fox on them that said "You snooze, you lose."
Kushina smirked at him, not that he could see it behind her mask. Each time she went after one of his bases, she wore her ANBU outfit along with the new Fox mask that Sarutobi sent through Jiraiya. It had the same nine tassels at the back that the previous had, all blood red in color. They were mostly decoration, since she normally held the mask on with chakra strings.
Her long red hair, which went past her waist, lay flat against her head. It was the biggest indication as to who was behind the mask. Her ANBU vest went down past her waist a little, and under it was a long sleeved shirt that just barely ended at her wrists, and they had the Uzumaki orange swirl covering her hands. She wore a short red skirt that was over a pair of long black pants that had white bandages on the left leg that held her kunai holster. In her right hand was the Uzumaki sword that only the head or the rightful heir could carry at any time.
Since she was the oldest living Uzumaki of the main clan, that made her the head of the clan...it also didn't hurt that Mito had named her the heir. Mito had lead the clan for years before the Kyuubi was transferred to Kushina and she died.
"Well, well...if it isn't the insolent little Potter brat," he sneered.
"And if it isn't the Orochimaru wannabe. What's the matter snake's bitch, have you lost your little toys?" she smirked right back. Her tone was arrogant and set just right to irritate him greatly.
"So you were the one to destroy my horcruxes... And here I was wondering if that old meddler had finally grown a back bone and gotten someone competent to do his work for him," said Voldemort.
Kushina snorted, her voice full of contempt.
"It was just your bad luck that you happen to piss me off more than that old bastard. As it stands your torture will last a lot longer than his once my mission is over."
"Oh? The Poster Child of the Light isn't afraid to get her hands dirty?"
Kushina had to cackle at that.
"Child of Light? That's the best you can come up with? Let me tell you exactly what I plan to do to Dumbledore and then tell me that I fit that ridiculous title," she cackled. It was her best Anko-style cackle, set to creep the hell out of the sane people.
It was very effective on the cowardly Death Eaters, who had been recently recruited.
When she was finished, many had lost their lunches at how descriptive they were, others were staring at her in impressed shock.
Voldemort was actually staring at her in something akin to absolute disbelief. This...was not what he had expected to deal with at all. The Potter girl, the same infant who took him out fifteen years ago...was more sadistic than he was! And she had no issues with killing, as was evident by the fact she had been taking out almost entire families without hesitation.
He was dealing with a different class of killer than he was used to.
Unseen, he didn't notice until too late that Neville Longbottom, the Healer of their merry band of killers, sneak up behind his Death Eaters and use a large sword to kill his snake Nagini. The sword in question was laced with so much Kyuubi-chakra from Kushina that Neville could barely hold it. The moment the sword took off the head of the snake, a loud horrible scream was heard from it's body.
Voldemort swore creatively as Neville apparated away before any of the Death Eaters could realize what he had done. His snake...and his most recent Horcrux was destroyed so utterly that his soul fragment didn't stand a chance.
Before he could cast a single killing curse at her, she had vanished...but not before leaving them a parting gift of a very high powered explosive tag ball that went off in their faces. Out of the 50 Death Eaters there, only ten would survive...and Voldemort would be cursing her name for weeks.
That was probably what prompted the attack on the train.