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Dragon Eye
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Name

Dokugan Ryu

Age

Unknown (presumed deceased as of 1613)

Gender

Male

Nationality

Japanese

Appearances

The Way of the Warrior
The Way of the Sword
The Way of the Dragon

Personal Information

Family

  • Unnamed mother
  • Unnamed brother (Deceased)
  • Unnamed father (Deceased)
  • Son (Deceased)

Occupation

Ninja

Dragon Eye (Dokugan Ryu, real name Hattori Tatsuo, once a ruthless samurai lord) is a ninja assassin who appears in the first three books in the Young Samurai series and acts as the major antagonist for the trilogy.

He is hired by a priest, Father Bobadillo, to steal the rutter, and kills Jack's father. But he became too obsessed with revenge against Masamoto Takeshi, and started what become known as the battle for Osaka Castle.

History

Dragon Eye is the exiled samurai lord Hattori Tatsuo. He was born in Yamagata Castle in the Year of the Snake. When he was a child, his eye became infected with smallpox and he pulled the diseased organ out of his own skull. Because of his missing eye, his mother considered him unfit to be the future head of the Hattori family, and began preparing his younger brother to be heir. He was even poisoned during dinner once by his mother, but miraculously survived, though he was maddened with his remaining eye gone as green as jade.  He later had his mother blinded as his revenge.

Tatsuo then killed his brother to ensure his own rise to power. When he was sixteen he went on his first raid with his father and his father was killed during the skirmish, some say by Tatsuo himself. Tatsuo was now head of the family-but that was not enough for him. He had his heart set on becoming the daimyo of northern Japan. On the battle field Tatsuo gained a reputation as a ruthless warrior. Soon he became daimyo of all northern Honshu. During his campaigns, he had a son.

His army crushed all of those before him until he was defeat at Nakasendo by the combine forces of southern and central lord, Daimyos Hasegawa, Takatomi, and Kamakura (who switched sides, an act which sealed Tatsuo's fate). His army was slaughtered and his son was cut down before him by Masamoto Takeshi. But then somehow he escaped into the Iga Mountains and went into hiding. But fortune was on his side when a ninja clan took him in and Grandmaster Soke began to train him, and that is how he became the most feared ninja ever lived.

The Way of the Warrior

In the first book Dragon Eye first appears in the Prologue, and kills Masamoto's son, Tenno. He then appears a few chapters later on the ship the Alexandria with his fellow ninja and kills Jack's father.

Masamoto's house is then attacked by him and several other ninja in a bid to steal the Rutter. They are fought off by Yamato, Akiko and Jack. Dragon Eye then vows to return, saying the rutter is not forgotten.

The Way of the Sword

In The Way of the Sword Dragon Eye makes an attempt to kill Jack using the Death Touch (Dim Mak) a feared Ninja technique that targets pressure points throughout the body and causes extreme pain and ultimately an agonising death unless the effects are reversed. He forces Jack to reveal the location of the rutter. Jack almost dies from this, but Sensei Kano comes along and fights off Dragon Eye just in time and heal Jack before his heart explodes. Sensei Kano was damaged by Dragon Eyes' tetsu bishi (spikes).

He would make his return during the Circle celebrations, He deploys his disciple Sasori as a distraction while he makes his getaway after accquiring the rutter, leaving Jack and his friends to their fate. Afterwards, he would hand over the rutter to Father Bobadillo.

The Way of the Dragon

In this book Dragon Eye kills Takuan, Sensei Nakamura's son, when he was actually aiming for Jack. He ends up in a fight with Jack, Akiko and Yamato on the roof of the castle during the Battle of Osaka Castle. After being knocked over a balcony by Yamato, he manages to pull him over. In a final attempt to save his friends, Yamato lets go and apparently plunges to his death along with the ninja.

The Ring of Earth

It would be revealed that Dragon Eye was formerly Soke's student. He fabricated a story that he was a farmer during the War of Nakasendo, and that an arrow had taken his eye out, when in fact he pulled the eye out himself due to smallpox, and was a defeated Samurai lord by the name of Hattori Tatsuo.

He would learn the Way of the Ninja at alarming speeds, but displayed brutality and a passion for killing during missions, and payed no heed to Ninniku - the spirit of the Ninja. He pretended to display Ninniku to Soke, just to trick him into teaching him more ninja arts. At some point in time he snuck into the Masamoto household, murdered Masamoto's son Tenno, and kidnapped Akiko's brother Kiyoshi. He took him into the Iga Mountains and that when Soke saw that fake good in him and teach him Dim Mak—the "Death Touch."

The Ring of Wind

Dragon Eye would make his sudden reappeance aboard a Sea Samurai ship, representing the interests of the Shogun. He had apparently negotiated a deal with Skullface, Tiger and Snakehead to bring him Jack in return for his bounty and their pardons. What the traitorous pirates didn't expect was that Dragon Eye wanted them to hand over the rutter as well. He kills Skullface and Tiger first, and Snakehead later after he reveals the location of Pirate Island where Tatsumaki keeps the rutter.

As he sails towards Pirate Island the Koketsu led by Tatsumaki assaults his ship to rescue Jack. Realizing their intention, Dragon Eye gives the command to execute Jack, but Tatsumaki stops him. He later flees by making use of the skiff Skullface left behind on the barren island nearby.

He would then make his way to Pirate Island to get the rutter. He fights Jack using Black Cloud and almost impales the young samurai on a bed of spikes, but the monkey Saru intervenes and Dragon Eye tosses her away, earning the wrath of Tatsumaki, forcing him to retreat. Saru is revealed to have survived.

As Pirate Island collapses Dragon Eye makes his final appearance and duels Jack once more, the two of them falling into the waters below as a balcony collapsed. While Jack was able to break his fall by utilizing the lessons learnt of the Ring of Wind, Dragon Eye would suffer fatal injuries.

He is then unmasked by Jack—and revealed that he was not the original Dragon Eye, after all. Instead, it was a kagemusha—a shadow warrior that took his place. Jack tries asking him about Yamato's fate, but in a last ditch attempt to kill Jack, the kagemusha tries strangling him, telling that Dragon Eye will haunt him to his death, but succumbs to his injuries.

Skills

Dragon Eye is a feared opponent, one of the most skilled warriors and ninja in Japan with a notorious reputation.

  • Dim Mak - one of Dragon Eye's main "talents" is Dim Mak, a pressure point technique which targets nerve endings in the body.
  • Taijutsu Expert - Dragon Eye's talent for unarmed combat is impressive, capable of taking on and defeating several opponents at once with seeming ease.
  • Dokujutsu Expert - like all ninja, Dragon Eye knows how to use poison as a weapon against others, poisoning a number of people including Masamoto's son Tenno.

Trivia

  • The name Dokugan Ryu literally means: Poison Eye Dragon.
  • Dragon Eye's real name—Tatsuo—means Dragon King.
  • Hattori is a tribute to the famous ninja master Hattori Hanzo.
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