If there's nothing else to be taken away from the spar, Atagi would certainly remember at least one thing-- if you're going up against someone with Mokuton, don't stop moving for any longer than you absolutely have to. That applied to a great many type of shinobi, but this was the first time he Uzumaki had experienced firsthand the difficulties produced by gripping vine and tangling root. There's a wry grin at his lips as Shosuke reminds him that, if they really were on a battlefield or in the midst of an operation, that a medic should be the first target. Part of him wonders if his personal sense of ethic would take issue with such a thing, but such questions are to be answered later. That, and something about Shosuke suggesting that Atagi should want to
stop an enemy doctor from saving those he was going to is...well, it's difficult to imagine that being a good thing.
Here and now, the grass-nin has a much more pressing issue, that of the plant fiber curled about his ankle.
”Keh!” There's a noise that might've been a curse or a shout, but he cuts it off to focus, as he's hefted up into the air by a single leg. This time, though, he's adequately prepared for the (potential) restraining, deftly slipping a hand behind his body and into his ninja fanny pack, snatching out a kunai. Still, it's not so easy to 'just' slice away at the vine holding his leg. He's not limp, per se, but the way his body moves along is like that of a doll when the vine thrashes one way, putting Atagi in the dirt. The impact was dizzying, but, thankfully, that armour jutsu had come in clutch to stop him from taking serious damage, absorbing the brunt of that smash into the ground and shattering once more, which'd kicked up a fair amount of dust.
Curling his body, arm moves, swiping and chopping at the vine to get himself free, even as the Uzumaki's being swung the other way and smashed again-- this time the armor isn't there, and he
whumps into the ground painfully, adding yet another bruise, scrape, and marr to his physical form from their day's efforts. The trickles of blood or the growing of welts would start, soon. But after the second, he manages to haphazardly get loose of the vine's grip.
There's no time wasted-- it might've looked like the vine just dropped him off, even, from how prepared he was to
move once he could. Scrambling, pushing up against the ground with one hand, he flings the kunai Shosuke's way. There's no way he expects it to actually disable or damage him, though, since no shinobi worth their pepper would fall prey to a single tossed ninja tool. But, importantly, it covers Atagi for the time he spends rocketing off the ground, like a runner in a race at the sound of a shot, right behind the kunai.
He predicts that it'll occupy Sho long enough for him to attack, and
this time, Atagi doesn't lob a softball his way, as he was admittedly doing. It seemed that, being given such an earnest request to stop
trying to hit the medic and just hit him, that it was only right. A quick jab to the gut, followed (relatively) seamlessly into a followup from his other side to the solar plexus, the intent behind them to make his opponent start to keel forth on instinct, as most human beings were wont to do when their 'sensitive underbellies' were under assault. The strikes are so quick, so practiced, that they
had to have been drilled gods know how many times. If that worked, then he'd slam a fist into the top or back of Sho's head, to send
him to the dirt for once-- though admittedly, even if he's supposed to be taking it more seriously now, there's a level of restraint, there-- he doesn't want to cause a friend serious traumatic head injury, like cracking his skull or being the cause of some sort of brain damage.
(
Yamamoto Shosuke)