Journey to Americagakure pt 7: Clues in the Aftermath

The remains of D.C. were gruesome. Since not many buildings were very tall, only a couple dozen or so had been completely demolished by the blast. Most of the structures were crippled, being slightly collapsed with most windows broken. Rubble of the trees that weren't vaporized and chunks of buildings and monuments littered the streets and what could be recognized as sidewalks. Skeletons of cars, trucks, buses, and the less fortunate people were in unimaginable places. In windows, on flagpoles, halfway buried into overturned ground lay these hallows of the old capital. The ninja had to hop around on the debris to scan the area because not enough smooth land existed to walk.

"Look!" cried Mio, "The Washington Monument is still there! Well, kinda…" the monument was for the most part still standing. A massive chunk of its middle was missing, making it look like an ice pop that had a single bite taken out of it in the center. Due to this fracture, it leaned precariously, ready to break at any second.

"This was to honor someone?" asked Sai.

"Yes," said Kamiko somberly, "It was originally supposed to be a statue to honor our first president, but due to a civil war construction was halted. After the war building continued, ergo the lighter stones you see closer to the top. In the end it became the tallest structure in the city, and it became illegal to make any building taller than it, which is why you don't see many tall buildings here."

"You seem to know a lot about this city." said the young artist, with that famous smile.

"Uh huh. Since I lived here, I know pretty much all there is to know about this place. I can navigate even this wreckage without a map or directions. I'd see that monument there every day with my parents or younger brother, and it would always give me hope that we'd always be together." the Super-Elite hardly looked fierce as she normally did as she reminisced about Washington D.C. This change of attitude brought a smile to most of the shinobis' faces, and a calm wind blew through, scattering tiny green leaves and cherry blossoms that survived the missile attack.

"It looks like a giant pe—"

"SAI!" Naruto and Sakura shut him up before any permanent mental damage could be done.

"Don't disgrace one of their prized monuments like that!" Sakura hissed.

"Yeah, there are little kids around! You shouldn't go around saying stuff like that!" added Naruto.

"Mio." said Tsuchi.

"What is it, Tsu-tsu?" Mio asked. Some of the ninja stifled a laugh or two. Ignoring them, Tsuchi continued,

"Why don't you go up thereon the top of the monument to see if you can spot anything? It may not be as tall as before, but it's still higher than anything around." Mio saluted like a soldier.

"Right! I'm on it, Tsu-tsu taichou!"

"Dude, you've got a fangirl." Kiba whispered into Tsuchi's ear.

"Don't remind me." Tsuchi replied. Despite her size, Mio was remarkably fast and agile. She climbed to the top of the remaining Washington Monument in less than 30 seconds, with no slip ups at all. After getting to the top, she quickly surveyed the surrounding area. Then she waved at the shinobi back on the ground, signaling them to join her. Once they all found a perch on a staggered limestone brick or steel reinforcement bar, Jin asked,

"Did you find something, Mio?"

"Nope!" she said happily.

"Then why the hell are we up here, too?"

"I was lonely…"

"Ugh, you're supposed to be looking for evidence! Let's split up and—"

"Wait." Shino interrupted.

"Now what?" said Jin, annoyed.

"I sent some of my bugs out when we arrived here. A group of them have located something that looks of importance. From the signals they're sending back to me it appears to be some piece of a document. It's old, whatever it is." Shino explained.

"Oh, no. Not the Declaration!" said Kobi. The SEJs immediately rushed towards the scene. Tiny pieces of paper were visible among the rubble that Shino's bugs were scouring.

"They ripped it. It's not but a corner, but they ripped it…" said Kamiko, studying one of the pieces carefully.

"It was the Declaration that the bugs found, but the Constitution and Bill of Rights are missing, too. I checked the rotunda below. These are fragments of all of them." Jin reported. Neji had picked up one of the scraps as well and engaged his Byakugan.

"But there's no way a parchment this old could have survived the blast, is there?" the Hyuuga asked.

"That's right, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are all over two hundred years old. Until this attack, they had been perfectly preserved between special sheets of glass and protected with the utmost security. Even though they're old, they were stored underground to avoid destruction like this, so I don't understand how pieces of them got up here." said Kamiko, giving the Konoha ninja more information on America. Neji, still inspecting the piece of the Constitution he had picked up, strained his Byakugan to the molecular level.

"This compound…" he said to himself. This prompted Jinketsu and Hinata to activate their Byakugan as well.

"Ah, he's right! There's a strange substance on some of these pieces." said Hinata.

"It's… chocolate." said Jin.