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Kouta jumped from tree to tree, whoever this was he knew his way through a forest. Could he be a local resident? No, that couldn’t be it; there was no other ninja village for many miles. The night was lit by the many stars and full moon above, making the path much easier to follow for the elite shinobi. He had been a jounin for three years now, since the age of sixteen. In fact he had met few adversaries outside of his home village that really gave him much of a challenge; he expected no more from this new target.

The brunette haired ninja stopped on a large branch, something was strange here. Kouta was an average sized ninja for his age, and preferred to wear clothes a little different from the usual Konoha ninja suit. The white lab coat had earned him the nickname Doc around town, especially with certain ladies. And he certainly looked the part, if it wasn’t for the ninja headband around his arm telling the difference might have been much more difficult.

Bright blue eyes scanned the area around the very small clearing… would the enemy really make an ambush here? It seemed a little to obvious, which made Kouta uneasy, clearly what was intended. Something had appeared at his left, his kunai was already being moved towards the alien object while he jumped back a little cautiously. As the blade sliced easily through the object, dark blood splattered on his face, which he quickly wiped away, the substance was blood.

What the hell… an eye? Kouta thought to himself looking at the split orb falling to the ground below. The jounin’s eyes shot wide and he quickly performed the body replacement technique, leaving a log in the shape of himself where he was once standing. The piece of wood now had several kunai protruding from its surface. Kouta hid in the foliage of a tree, watching closely for any sign of his opponent.

“You are faster than I expected Konoha shinobi,” A mocking voice said behind him, causing the short haired ninja to jump away and throw two shuriken at the source. He quickly looked around at his surroundings, which had now changed in a disturbing fashion. Hanging from many of the branches of the trees around him were human eyes, hanging from some kind of strings. “I see you little ninja, I have my eye on you.”

“What the hell kind of jutsu is this?” Kouta quietly asked himself, grasping a fresh kunai in his hand. I need to find this guy quickly, this is starting to look like a very bad situation. Kouta scanned the trees and bushes, trying to avoid eye contact with the hundreds of hanging eyeballs around him. “There!” He gave a small exclamation as he threw his kunai towards a rustling bush, which was answered by a scream of pain. “Show yourself you sick b*****d!” the brunette jounin growled, whipping three more shuriken into his right hand.

Laughing echoed behind him, “All you had to do was ask nicely little ninja,” the same sadistic voice that had just screamed was behind him somehow. Kouta spun slightly annoyed, finally laying eyes on the crafty shinobi who toyed with him for so long. Wild hair with large eyes were the first things he observed, followed by a veil covering his lower mouth and a massive jet black poncho making the rest of the mans body impossibly to decipher. The enemy shinobi carried a single item in his left hand, and nothing but a clenched fist in his right.

“I wish the academy had told me that was all it took to bring out a man trying to kill you,” Kouta countered, throwing his shuriken with deadly aim at the strange figure in the trees. A black blur in the night, which was the best way to describe the shinobi who dodged the deadly projectiles and landed on the ground several feet away. He clearly was hunched down, something which struck a small cord deep down in Kouta, who merely smiled now. “Standing like that is bad for your back you know, but if you stand still for a moment I can fix it for you.”

“I thank you for the offer ninja of the hidden leaf, but my back is quite alright, more than I can say for you,” He said the last word loudly, straining his eyes in an almost insane fashion. The object in his left hand turned out to be another eyeball, this time on a gold chain. The eye immediately started into a pendulum like movement. Kouta couldn’t help but glance down at it for a moment, immediately seeing a blue then red chakra emanating from it, blue when on the right, red when on the left.

Kouta tore his sight away from the mesmeric device, knowing that he was being tricked; it had been a close one indeed. Or at least he had thought it had been a close one with that eye, but as he looked up… all the eyes were now mimicking the eye on the golden chain. “What the hell is this?” Kouta growled throwing a shuriken at the eye the quite creepy shinobi held, and another at the controller himself.

Both star shaped disks cut straight through their targets, like a blade through a beam of light. Kouta looked around, seeing about ten of the shinobi now, causing him to give a small shiver. The jounin had never had to deal with such a powerful genjutsu; this was not something he had ever heard about. Still, he was a ninja of Konoha, he would not fall to simple tricks, and it would take more than that to put the Doc down.

Kouta closed his eyes, which left him with red and blue traces from the many eyes and colors around him before. I’ll rely on my other senses then. Already the Doctor could hear footsteps behind him, which he quickly turned towards with an open palmed punch. Once again nothing but air, and it was starting to get very frustrating fighting against this opponent. A snap of someone’s fingers, white light filled the darkness that was supposed to be created by Kouta’s eyelids, to bright for him to handle causing him to snap his eyes open once again.

His head was swimming now; nothing was making any sense, what kind of fight was this? “Is the little Konoha ninja having troubles seeing?” It was his opponent once again, mocking his inability to fight back against this kind of attack. Another snap of fingers, and things became more visible again, and now there was only a single one of the poncho wearing ninja before him. “Would you prefer a fight with taijutsu?” he asked tilting his head.

“b*****d! Don’t mock me,” Kouta jumped up from his knees, he wasn’t sure when he had dropped to them, but apparently he had. “Who the hell are you anyways?”

“Well now, no need to get mad, but I go by Optic, you would know me as an S Class criminal if you looked in your handbook, though I doubt you have any information on me other than my name and a warning,” Optic told him with a pleased tone, clearly enjoying this little game. Kouta had seen the name before, but never heard anything else about the renegade ninja. “By the way you already told me your name, if you don’t remember, Kouta.”

“What?” Kouta did not like this more and more every second that passed. How long had the jutsu gone for?

“Don’t worry, you were only under my spell for but 5 minutes, we had a nice chat, but fear not I did not take any of your anything that you hold to dear in your head, the jutsu only allows for simple answers, such as your name for instance, other than that think of it like twenty questions,” the voice informed him, clearly aware of Kouta’s concerns. Kouta was quite tired of this, and quickly performed a clone jutsu, the basic one making a total of four standing side by side in a strange fighting stance. “Oh? Ready to fight me then I see, well then come when you are ready.”

The Konoha jounin was quite tired of being treated like a child; this ninja couldn’t be more than a few years older than him. Kouta wasted no more time, and him and his clones were quickly attacking from various directions. Of course this was his cover, for there was actually five of him, the real one earth melded behind and below Optic. The strange S class criminal’s first action was to pull the veil from his face, revealing a large and sinister grin, and his second action was to quickly strike disposing of the clones as easily as anyone could with such tangible fakes.

Optic didn’t seem surprised at all to find that all four were fakes, but he did break his sick smile for a moment as Kouta exploded from the ground behind him. “You should have killed me when you had the chance, having me behind you is the last thing you want!” the doctor shouted as his hands immediately went to work on the back of his opponent, hitting him in places which would cause severe and possibly permanent damage to a man’s back. He finished his attack by placing both his hands on Optic’s shoulders, and proceeded to dislocate them from the joints, and then smash a devastating attack with both his hands placed together and palms together for one attack, sending the strange shinobi flying across the ground. “Never give your opponent the upper hand; it will always end in ruin.”

Optic gave a low groan, slowly standing up with his back still turned to the Doctor. The S ranked criminal gave a small chuckle, making Kouta’s eye twitch in annoyance. “What is so funny?” Kouta asked going back into his fighting stance.

“I like you, so for that reason I will allow you to keep your eyes,” Optic said as he bent his back straight back, putting his head on the ground allowing him to see right behind to Kouta, who was flinching in rage. The Konoha ninja charged forward getting ready for another round of his powerful taijutsu. This time however Optic reacted with more enthusiasm, and twisted himself around while still standing on his head, and rather than stand up normally, the renegade stood only on his hands, he had popped his shoulders back into place somehow.

This was a fighting style Kouta had never seen before, and could not compare it with anything he knew. For one after being hit from behind like Optic had been by the Doctor, they rarely got up again unless they went to a medical ninja like Tsunade. Each of Kouta’s attacks was quickly blocked by the others feet, on which each one Optic wore traditional Japanese sandals and the attacks that were not blocked, were dodged by twisting and weaving circles around the lab coat wearing Jounin.

What am I fighting? This guy can’t be human! These and similar questions went through Kouta’s head, as he tried to land at least one attack on the hand stand fighting warrior. The Konoha Jounin quickly jumped away, started to feel that his stamina was getting quite low. Why hasn’t he just killed me yet? The true question, it was painfully obvious no matter how much he wanted to deny it, this Optic guy was on a different level.

“Hmm, considering I found you and the feudal lord you were assigned to protect from assassination I presume, at random, I guess you really just have had the worst of luck today, but I must say you have kept me entertained tonight, it is rare I can get a good work out and stretch my muscles, but there is something about you I like, I can’t get my eye to see it though, must be on the inside then,” Optic said once again standing like a normal person would and still grinning brightly. The eye on the chain was in his hand again, and swinging like before, and with it the hundreds of eyes that hung from the trees.

Kouta was already trapped, he knew it the moment that he tried to close his eyes he could see like they were open. “Forgive me, but I can’t let you remember the all of the techniques I used on you, but I will let you see one more, and I don’t think you will ever forget this one, trust me this one is much more than genjutsu,” Kouta fought with all his will, but every word stabbed into his mind striking a nerve that he couldn’t ignore. “One Thousand Sorrowful Tears Jutsu,” Optic said performing several seals, the eyes all around them both beginning to cry like children… hundreds of children’s voices soon accompanied the tears that now fell, each eye from a different victim.

Their tears fell like rain down on Kouta, each one telling him how its victim died, and letting him feel the pain before they passed on, their regrets, and their sorrows. Soon he found himself crying, something he hadn’t done since he was a baby, and crying out into the night air for mercy. The torture seemed endless, but like a summer rain slowly trickled to a stop, leaving the Konoha Shinobi on the ground weeping for death, something that Optic would not give him.

“Once again, I will let you keep your eyes, but they are a pretty color, next time they are mine, I promise you that,” Optic said as he disappeared just as quickly as he appeared, all his eyes in the trees being pulled up and leaving a lone ninja on the ground. “Don’t forget to eat your carrots,” the voice echoed away in the darkness, which Kouta soon fell into, his whimpers dying away.