How long has it been? Seconds? Years? Centuries?
Neji didn't know. One second he was content. Closing his eyes on the battlefield, having saved his friend and little sister. The next, darkness.
This wasn't how he imagined the pure land.
Especially not the strange feelings and memories he had been struck with. For some time now (Eons? He still wasn't entirely sure) he had sorted through them. He could barely believe the strange events he saw across various strange worlds. Shinigami at war. Pirates sailing the seas. A strange lizard-like humanoid being beaten by a golden haired warrior. Even events from his world he should have no way of knowing. What the hell was A Boruto? At least Hinata seemed happy.
Wait a minute. Was that him as a ghost?
"Listen Lee, and remember this carefully. PHYSICAL STRENGTH OVER ENDURANCE. PHYSICAL STRENGTH OVER ENDURANCE."
This is ridiculous.
"And don't forget... Hyuga"
What does any of this mean?
"Ha classic Rock Lee" A small voice added, separate and fading, but still a part of him.
It was at this reflection that he felt a pull. Something, or someone was pulling him in. Suddenly there was once again light and life. He was falling, falling towards a blue planet. By now he and Sam's souls were nearly fully merged. Soon they would stop being two entities and merge fully as one. This was, of course, assuming they weren't about to enter someone else's body. The Isekai genre was popular after all. Something he was now quit familiar with, thanks to the fusion.
"Well," He relaxed his mind "The only thing left is to wait."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~On a blue planet in the seventh universe, a young man sat outside his home deep in the Diablo desert. It was late, and he and Puar were star gazing. Well, Puar was star gazing. Yamcha was brooding.
"What do you think I should do Puar?" he asked his feline companion. For half a year now Yamcha had been in a bit of a funk. He hadn't even tried to contact Bulma since the last world tournament. He just couldn't bring himself to face her.
When King Piccolo attacked he couldn't do anything. Tien had broken his leg, and even when he was able to walk again he was no match for even one of the Demon King's children. If that wasn't bad enough, three years later he had been equally useless.
Three years of training and he felt no closer to facing the monsters that were Goku and Piccolo Jr. . How was he supposed to face someone he wanted to protect knowing that even if he gave his life, it wouldn't even buy more than a handful of seconds. Maybe he should quit all of this. Goku, Krillin, Tien, Piccolo. Despite his efforts he still couldn't beat any of them.
"Don't get discouraged, Yamcha, you're super strong!" Puar's high pitched voice rang out from beside him. "You and your friends are the strongest people on the planet!"
He gave a weary smile. Although Puar was right, it did little to soothe his wounded pride. Lately he had been considering getting into sports. If he couldn't get a win in the world of fighting, he could sure as hell be the worlds best Baseball player.
As his thoughts continued to spiral, he heard Puar give out a little gasp. Curious he looked up, only the be stunned by what looked like a shooting star falling. Wow, it was actually pretty beautiful.
Wait a minute.
Is it falling towards them?
"Good luck," Startled he whipped around searching for the voice he heard. Looking to Puar for help, he noticed the little cat hadn't seemed to hear anything. "this won't feel nice"
"Wha"
Before he could finish his thought the falling star slammed into him. There was no impact, but a blinding flash of light. Before he could question anything, a sudden, soul rending pain struck him. His breath caught as his mouth shot open in a silent scream. He couldn't move, couldn't make a noise, couldn't even breathe. The pain was absolute. Bone deep wasn't enough to describe the depth of it, whatever this was felt like it was lashing at his very soul. His ki revolted, flaring wildly as he completely lost control of his energy. Yamcha's body felt like it had been dipped in molten metal. His flesh bulged as muscles ripped and veins burned. His eyes felt like fire and he could feel blood escaping from the corners. Unbeknownst to him, the whites of his eyes alternated between their natural white and blood red as the vessels and nerves exploded and reformed. Even the color seemed to fade from his irises, settling on a light white. For what felt like an eternity the desert bandit's body seemed to break down and rebuild. Finally, minutes later, with one last agonizing pulse of his ki everything fell silent.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Puar looked terrified. Just seconds ago his friend was confiding in him. He was doing his best to comfort his crestfallen companion, but before they could finish their talk a blinding light from the sky struck Yamcha. What followed was horrifying for the shapeshifter. His friend writhed in pain as his body convulsed. Blood dripped from every orifice of his face as his energy ran wild. A few minutes later his ki stopped flaring as his eyes rolled up. As he began to fall Puar transformed into a pillow and dove to catch Yamcha before he could hit the ground.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Strange scenes danced before the minds eye of the unconscious man.
Ninjas desperately struggling against a massive mountain of a creature. Ten massive tails thrashing wildly as countless men met their end. He was a Hyuga branch family member, Neji. He struggled until there was no chakra left to spend, yet still an attack closed in on his sister and his friend. A sharp pain in his chest as a stake pierced his body. A heartfelt goodbye, then, darkness.
Fighters clashing in a tournament for the world's strongest. A three eyed man attacked him relentlessly. He was Yamcha, desert bandit turned martial artist. He unleashed his signature attack, the wolf fang fist. Astonishingly, and frustratingly, every blow was dodged. Making space he uses his newest, and strongest, attack. The Kamehameha. Firing the concentrated beam of ki, he is both amazed and horrified at it being redirected back to him. He dodges and re-engages. However he is swiftly overtaken and knocked unconscious.
Strangely, he watches both scenes again from a computer screen. He was Sam,though that identity was fading. His memory is foggy and he can't recall much about his life, most things coming through as instinctual. He stared dazedly as various scenes played out. Two people fighting on the moon. One cloaked in a flaming orange energy, the other in a bright teal. He watched in awe as the one cloaked in teal actually sliced the moon in half.The video changes now, and suddenly he sees a group of people he knows all too well. He watched on as one of his favorite characters, Yamcha fought a strange looking green creature. Yamcha panicked as the creature latched on to him.
*CRACK*
Falling?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He awoke with a start. Still confused by the dream, no, the memories, he looked around. Standing up, he notices the suspiciously Puar colored pillow he'd been laying on. Taking in his surroundings all he can really see is a massive desert. His eyes were much sharper than he remembered, vision reaching miles into the baron dessert.
"How the hell did I end up in the desert? And what are all of these memories?"
Wait, he lives here.
No.
No, he lives in Konoha. Well lived. He was dead.
"It was me who lived in Konoha," A voice rang out in his mind.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" a startled cry ripped out of him.
"You already know who I am" The annoyingly calm voice responded.
The answer immediately came to him.
"Neji Hyuga? How the hell are you in my head?"
"You know that as well, bandit."
Some of his most recent memories surface. A strange child sized thing pulling him out of darkness. As his confusion grows he hears a blue man talk about crossing through some kind of void. He picked up another soul along the way? That might explain the strange memories of watching his life as an anime.
"This is insane, how is any of this possible? I don't even think Shenron could smoosh people together like that"
"You already know everything I do," He began, the snark in his tone falling slightly short, given that Yamcha could tell his voice was slightly quieter than only a few moments ago "We're merging now, so our memories will be easier to read."
"Wait, that's right. Wasn't there a second guy here?"
"There was. His spirit wasn't as strong as ours. We were both damaged traversing here. We could have fused, but the power mismatch was too severe. The fusion of souls requires a comparable level of power."
"What, so you like, ate him?" A suddenly much more panicked Yamcha replied.
"No you idiot!" barked back the suddenly much more irritated Hyuga.
"We still joined but he was subsumed by me." Neji exhaled, calming his mind. He's instinct now, and his memories are like my own. With you, I'd like to merge amicably"
"So you want to fuse huh, do I have a choice?"
"You do," Neji began, the snark returning to his still fading voice. "And it is already happening. If you wanted to reject it there would be a struggle between our mental energies, and whoever wins absorbs the other. Not fusing, devouring. One ceases to exist, and the other gets everything from the other."
"Kami, thats grim. So either fuse or be food huh?
"A crude way of putting it, but yes. So shall we?" His soul trying to twine with Yamcha's.
Yamcha was quiet for a moment. He knew Neji's story well. Something he now knew was because their memories were beginning to mesh. He understood well why he was so accepting. Regardless of the curse seal being gone now, it functioned by targeting the yin chakra of those marked. Scars were left, ordinarily the soul would be cleansed of these scars before reincarnating, the act of reincarnation itself cleanses the of anything that may have effected it. The memories and experience become a part or the soul and anything that could harm it were purged. But Neji was not truly reincarnating. It was either we fuse and the stronger soul will heal itself, or those scars would remain until its eventual reincarnation.
It was a chance to truly heal, and still live on.
He accepted.
A vast warmth flowed through him, a welcomed comfort after the harrowing transformation he'd just experienced.
"Then we live on. Let us break our fate together my friend."
With that they fused completely. Yamcha's mind expanded rapidly, and he has memories of multiple lives now. The ninja Neji from Konoha, who himself inherited a you man named Sam's memories. From what he saw earlier he knew already this included visions of he and his friends' future. The other life, that of the desert bandit Ya-
All of the awful things that happened to him in these memories.
"Wait a minute..... What the fuck! Seriously! YAMCHA? Oh Kami I'm doomed"
The last fading whisper of Neji Hyuga whispered in his mind "At least it's not Chiaotzu."