Two years had passed since Zero had joined the war. In this time, his notoriety had grown immensely to the point where he had gained his own title.
It was a nostalgic title, the same one he had earned in his past life.
The Dragon Of The Rain. It was said that a A force no less dangerous than his counterpart, Hanzo Of The Salamander.
Over these past two years, Zero had slaughtered hundreds, maybe thousands of shinobi from various countries, causing a bounty to be put out on him.
He even got promoted from Genin to Special Jounin, as Hanzo recognized that Zero wasn't particularly skilled at ninjutsu or genjutsu...but his taijutsu and kenjutsu ability was so high that such a weakness didn't even matter.
Now, Hanzo was preparing to give Zero another reward for his meritorious service. One that he was preparing for two years.
Standing in an underground laboratory, Hanzo could be seen looking through a glass window, his gaze focused on the figure his scientists were working on.
Next to him was a young man in his twenties, a man whose attire showed that he wasn't from Amegakure.
"Sosetsu, are you sure this will work? The future of Amegakure is on the line here."
Sosetsu smiled casually and nudged Hanzo on the shoulder, responding, "I didn't trudge through this war torn land for nothing, old friend. I've brought the greatest minds of Yukigakure with me. Combined with your scientists, I'm sure that they can succeed in this project. Besides, when you see what they've created, you might die of shock, heh."
Hanzo rubbed his chin and turned his attention back to Zero, who laid on a metal table on the other side of the glass.
'If this goes well...I think together we will be...no, even without me, he can make this tiny country into a Great Nation of its own. With us at the helm, Amegakure will see it's greatest period of prosperity and power since it's inception.'
Hanzo clenched his fist as he hoped that this experiment would go on without a hitch. After all, Zero's life was at stake here.
Zero on the other hand, took a deep breath as he lay naked on the table, his remaining limbs strapped down with metal locks.
'To think Hanzo had a robotic arm made for me in secret. I'll have to thank him in the future.'
Looking at the table next to him, Zero could see some scientists working on an arm and...something else. But, he couldn't turn his neck fully as even that was strapped down.
Suddenly, one of the scientists walked up to him and placed his hand on his chest, saying, "Mr. Zero, since your regeneration prevents us from putting you under anesthesia, you will have to go through this procedure as you are. We will have to break your body in ways you haven't felt before. The pain will be immense. Are you ready?"
Zero took another breath, relaxed as much as he could, and nodded.
"I'm ready, doctor."
"Then, let us begin!"
WHOOSH!
The scientists pressed a button, causing the table to be flipped over as the bottom of the table opened up, revealing Zero's back.
Zero didn't expect this. Weren't they only going to graft a robotic arm on to him? Why could they be touching his back?
But, these thoughts didn't last long. As in an instant, only unexplainable pain filled his mind.
The scientists rammed several needles into his back and spine, each of them fulled with the most heinous and venomous poisons they could create.
"Arghh!!"
The scientists, seemingly deaf to Zero's shouts operated with cold efficiency as they continuously poisoned the man against his will.
Now that his regenerative ability was mostly focused on keeping the poison at bay, the scientists cut open Zero's back with extreme precision, ignoring the poisonous blood and fumes emanating from his body.
When his spine was laid bare before them, the scientists did something unprecedented. They completely severed his nerves and spine, ripping the bone from his body without warning.
Zero immediately fell unconcious from the blood loss, shock, and incomprehensible pain that ran through every corner of his body.
For all intents and purposes, Zero should be dead.
But no, Yamatano-Orochi kept him alive through all of his torture.
BANG!
"What is the meaning of this, Sosetsu?! Do you mean to destroy my legacy right in front of my eyes?!"
Hanzo almost destroyed the glass window separating him and the lab below, his anger surging as he saw Zero's pitiful condition.
"Calm down, old friend! This was all part of what we came up with! During our research, we figured out that even if we implanted the arm onto him, with something powerful enough to control this part of the body, he would never be able control his new body to it's fullest potential. So..."
After the scientists put his human bloodied spine on the table, a man reached over and pulled a cloth from a nearby table, revealing a whole new cybernetic part.
"...we decided to give him a new spine. With the rain villages technological prowess and our new developments into chakra armor...Hanzo, trust me. He will go above and beyond your expectations."
Struggling to calm down, Hanzo gritted his teeth and clenched the chain on his kusarigama as he continued to watch the procedure.
For three days and three nights, the scientists worked tirelessly, even bringing in a young prodigy in the scientific world, Amado Sanzu, to help push Zero's capabilities to new heights.
The moment he laid eyes on Zero, he identified a fatal flaw in their plan. Even with a cybernetic spine and arm, his heart and brain were still completely human.
His nerves were still human.
His chakra network was still that of a normal human.
They couldn't keep up with the drastically increased demand of chakra and synapse fires that these cybernetic parts would cause.
So, the team once again went to work, fashioning various chips that could be input into his brain and a completely new heart made out of Zero's own strange self-regenerating DNA.
They completely replaced his nervous system, even the parts located in his biological body, with an artificial one capable of keeping up with the increased demand.
His heart was replaced by an artificial one that followed the design principle of the chakra armor. Namely, bolstering his chakra strength and quantity, while providing resistance against ninjutsu and genjutsu.
His brain was implanted and later modified completely into one that could lead the function of these new body parts with absolute efficiency.
Three days quickly turned into three months. Hanzo never left Zero's side for the entire time.
As for Zero's chakra network...well, the scientists weren't omnipotent. Just achieving their earlier feat within that time span was a miracle by itself.
Zero would have to figure that part out by himself. The only thing they could do was to completely integrate the artificial parts into Zero's biological body. After all, Zero was a shinobi, not just a regular man.
He needed to move like a well-oiled machine in battle.
By the time they were done, Zero had turned from a man into a cyborg. The only machine like parts that visually looked like artificial were his arm and his slightly protruding spine.
Everything else looked completely human on the outside.
When they were done, the scientists collapsed on the floor from exhaustion. They had never worked on a project so demanding in their lives. To most of them, Zero would be their Magnum Opus.
The only thing left was for Zero to wake up and show them his new found power.
One day quickly turned into one week, and one week into one month. Scientists had started to give you hope...but the signs of life were still there. Zero just had to wake up.
[Two months later.]
"Urghhh..."
A young man, about 17 years of age, could be seen slowly getting up from a bed within a large room made of industrial steel. His long hair draped over his face as he clutched his head with his metal arm, trying to process where he was at and who he was.
The moment he woke up, a scientist who was sitting next to his bed slowly opened his eyes and immediately jumped out of his sleep as he saw Zero sitting up.
"HE'S ALIVEEEEE!!! QUICK, COME UP HERE!"
The scientist went running out of the bedroom door, shouting for the others to join up.
"Urgh...shut up."
The young man slowly got up and stumbled over to the mirror to see himself, hoping that he would remember who he was.
As he leaned over the sink and looked himself in the mirror, a jolt of electricity surged through his brain, causing him to lean his head back from the pain.
Memories filled his brain, showing the young man everything he has ever experienced from his childhood to now in an instant.
"Urghh!!!'
Hanzo, Sosetsu and the rest of the scientists ran into the room as fast as they could, shocked when they saw the young man in pain.
"Young Zero!"
They thought something had gone wrong with the procedure and it had affected him somehow.
What if it caused him to go berserk? Hanzo was ready for that and brought his kusarigama with him just in case. He couldn't risk someone like Zero going mad.
But, something strange happened.
Soon enough, Zero's cries of pain turned into slight laughter then into silence.
"Gamma Null, No.0...Takemura...Snow...Yamatano-Orochi...The Dragon. Yeahhh...I remember who I am now."
Zero cracked his neck and turned to Hanzo, glancing at the kusarigama in his hand as he said, "Lord Hanzo, how long has it been?"
Hanzo breathed a sigh of relief as he heard this.
"Five months, Young Zero. You've been out for a long time. Its been so long that the war has once again shifted in Konoha's favor."
Zero raised an eyebrow as he heard this. It seemed that Konoha had started ramping up their war effort considerably since he had left.
"Is that so?"
Feeling the new functionality and sheer alien sensation that his own body gave him, Zero was eager to test it out in battle.
Grabbing a white bath robe from his bathroom, Zero wrapped it around his naked body and walked towards the door, causing the scientists to move aside.
"Then, I'll gear up and see what the Great Nations have been up to lately. It seems as if they have forgotten who they are dealing with."