Enu took up position and sighted down along his shuriken rifle to see down the hallway freely while Kaori and Mitsuhide searched the room, tended to each other, and checked on Taka at the same time. Mitsuhide's rudimentary first aid accomplished little good aside from stopping the bleeding, but it would be enough to see Kaori through the rest of the battle should he remain un-hit.

Taka proved to be a far less...promising case. Despite Mitsuhide's efforts he could find no pulse or hint of warmth to the jounin's body. Stumbling back Mitsuhide's eyes widened in surprise and a fair amount of horror as he realized...Taka was far from okay...she was dead!

Kaori's investigations turned up little of note or interest, except that the corner nearest to him had a five foot by four foot square that was set about a half inch lower then the rest of the floor...

Enu's focus rewarded him well when he saw a flash of white at the very end of the hall way. Almost without warning the burnt form of the battle-axe wielding creature came into sight with both hands over it's shoulders. A second later they were brought forward in a powerful throw that sent it's axe spinning end over end down the hallway...it passed a highspeed shuriken about halfway down that had been fired by the mechanical genin's weapon. The shuriken hit while the battle axe bit into the far wall of the room and fell to the ground. Stumbling back, the robed figure teetered on it's feet before it began to fall over as if in slow motion...only vanish in a puff of white smoke that left nothing in it's wake about a second before hitting the ground...The same sound was heard from the far wall as well as the battle-axe also disappeared.