Yamcha was a very confused man. Along with his 23 years of life, he had another 18 years of memories living as one Neji Hyuga. Training in martial arts, harnessing chakra, (which he assumed functioned a bit like ki, he would have to investigate) and taking missions as a ninja of all things. Due to the influence of the deteriorated soul that hitched a ride into the void, he also seemed to have in depth knowledge of the ninja world Neji would have no way of knowing.
The entire history of the ninja world unfolded before him. Everything from the arrival of princess Kaguya, to Naruto's battle with Toneri on the moon. Scene's from Naruto's time as Hokage, Hinata's marriage to Naruto, Himawari and the atrociously named Boruto. Even more members of the illusive Otsutsuki clan.
"So the byakugan is the eye of the Otsutsuki clan huh? Kaguya had some interesting techniques. Still, from the Tenseigan, Momoshiki's golden byakugan, and even Boruto's Jogan, it seem's like the byakugan is susceptible to mutations."
While the Tenseigan may be a bit of an evolutionary dead end in this world, a new power system could lead to unknown developments. He'd need to keep an eye on his... well... eyes. Genetic instability was dangerous, Jugo himself and Orochimaru's curse mark experiments are a testament to that. Most of what he saw from Neji's memories was basically useless. The peak of power he observed was planetary at the high end, meanwhile Roshi could already fully destroy the moon while still standing on earth. He didn't imagine many jutsu would be able to stay relevant for much longer in this new reality. The martial prowess and experience would be helpful though. On top of what he saw from the Ninja world, there were also visions of other strange worlds, even glimpses of things Yamcha shouldn't know from his own world.
Past events were the clearest in his mind. Strange alien gods, a small creature in a hover craft launching a terrifying attack at a planet, and a shockingly familiar face trying and failing to stand up to the blast. The future was significantly more blurry, with events Yamcha was personally involved in being the clearest. A shocking Alien invasion, adventures in space, a scary old guy with his hand through his chest. He shuddered at this, absentmindedly rubbing his chest as vivid memories of being impaled just before his death flashing through his mind.
And wasn't that a shock. As Neji Hyuga he had died. A heroic death for sure, certainly more heroic than the brief vision of himself being bear hugged and blown up by a mutated vegetable.
His shinobi training kicked in. He needed to take stock. He'd noticed obvious changes, both inside and out. The warrior's body felt strange, different from both sets of memories. He closed his eyes and turned his focus inward.
From what he could tell the make up of his body was very similar to what he was used to, just a bit... more, was the best term he could think of. Like the attributes he was used to from either world were dialed up. Next up, it was time to inspect his energy. Reaching for the familiar thrum of power he was left momentarily breathless.
It moved so smoothly! Yamcha had never questioned it, but with Neji's memories the contrast was obvious. The human bodies of this world were natural conduits for energy. The calmness with which his energy flowed made Neji's chakra flow seem like a roaring whitewater rapid. Focusing further he attempted to activate his byakugan. He felt the veins around his eyes bulge slightly as his vision expanded through his closed eyes. He focused all of his attention inward.
The next thing he noticed was the chakra system, or the lack thereof. Instead of a circulatory system, ki seemed to have a natural flow through the body. While it followed similar paths there didn't seem to be any kind of physical vein like the chakra circulatory system, the ki itself flowed naturally. The potent power wound itself through his body, around organs and every other internal system, nourishing them with a potency dwarfing chakra. It was a massive, intertwined system of power, both more malleable and durable than he remembered.
Now possessing a near absolute knowledge of the ninja world, Yamcha theorized that this was because of the lack of Otsutsuki interference. Without the god tree to artificially spread chakra, the denizens of this universe naturally developed the ability to harness their own internal energies. As for the changes and improvements from Yamcha's body, Evidently housing two and a half souls in a single body required a bit of rebuilding. It was obvious that his body would be stronger, and that increasing things even further would definitely be possible. He suspect angelic interference. Not that he would complain. The hardware had to be able to run the newly expanded software. If the hardware melted down just trying to power up, whatever force that had sent him here wouldn't be entertained. Thus, upgrades people.
"Lucky," Yamcha thought, "The gentle fist should still work, with a bit of fine tuning."
Inspecting the system further, he found that the gates Guy-sensei had taught him about were still present. As he experimented with his energy he could clearly see them keeping ki held back to ensure his body had the energy to survive. Although Guy had taught him the method of training in the 8 inner gates formation he had never worked towards it. With the technique whipping chakra into a frenzy it would be nearly impossible to utilize his gentle fist techniques, which required precise control to be effective. Additionally, the body is not meant to use that much of it's power. Ignoring that fact that using too much of your chakra, or ki in this case, leads to you body being deprived of the energy it needs to exist; forcing your physical strength to that level will inevitably damage your body. While any person sufficient in manipulating their internal energy can use it to enhance their strength, the gates wont allow you to take it to a point where simply movements can cause damage to yourself.
After the initial inspection of his changed body, he lowered himself into a meditative position and began inspecting the nature of his ki. Immediately he noticed one key difference from chakra, there was no elemental split. No, instead of the five elements he only sensed two things. Yin and yang, physical energy and spiritual energy. From what he could tell from his memories the physical energy was the fuel for he and his friends abilities, while his spiritual power aided in the shaping and manipulation of his ki. He theorized that some of the more "magical" abilities he'd observed in people like fortune teller Baba stemmed from precise applications of energy via an abundance of spiritual power. As well as control, there was the delightful side effect of enhancing his comprehension and mental fortitude.
"That's probably why Master Roshi's kamehameha is so much stronger than even Goku's. With his mastery and spiritual energy he is capable of compressing his ki further than us, so even while having less energy it packs a biggerpunch when it hits."
Speaking of spiritual energy, that was another massive change. Based on the fact that he now had an additional one and a half souls, his spiritual energy had sky rocketed. This was compounded by the fact that the Juken was based heavily on the control of chakra. Gaining this influx of both power and experience, his control might be approaching Roshi's at this point. It's hard to tell really, that guy is a couple hundred years old, who knows how many tricks he actually has tucked away. But now he had an edge as well. Due to ridiculous clan traditions he wasn't allowed to practice it all, but Neji never stopped studying techniques. He'd even persuaded Tsunade at one point to let him take a peak at the scroll of seals.
A sly smile spread across Yamcha's face as he let the byakugan deactivate and opened his eyes.
"With the help of my enhanced memory I may be able to adapt some of those techniques. At least the ones based on yin and yang manipulation."
There were several seals he had in mind that could be incredibly useful. Things like edo tensei never interested him to begin with, and now with a completely different afterlife here it wouldn't even work. Besides, he knew full well that there were gods here that wouldn't hesitate to act, and he had no desire to tempt fate.
With the spike in mental energy, and Neji's will to be as strong as he can be, (something further tempered by the lack of a certain seal on his forehead) Yamcha refused to end up as the footnote he saw in his visions.
"I wont let my self fall behind. Not anymore."
As he spoke the hereto stationary Puar pillow began to stir.
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As Puar woke up, he noticed that at some point during his nap, Yamcha had awoken. Ignoring the gross mix of blood, sweat, and drool he was covered in for now he quickly returned to cat form and rushed at his now meditating friend. At first glance there were only a few changes. His hair laid a bit flatter for sure. It now seemed longer, cascading in waves down to his lower back rather than the mess of spikes it had been previously. His body seemed a bit sturdier now as well. All of this mattered little to Puar however, as he quickly zeroed in on the changes to his eyes.
"Yamcha!" He cried out, already tearing up at the sight of his friends apparent lack of vision.
"Hey Puar, sorry about the mess." Came the awkward response. Yamcha was legitimately embarrassed, having now realized just how much of a mess he had made during his change.
He didn't have time to say more as the little cat flew into him at full speed.
"What happened to your eyes? I'll get the phone, we can call Bulma, she'll get you help!"
"easy buddy," the very much not blind bandit responded "My eyes are fine. I'm not entirely sure whats happened, but I'm okay now I promise."
Yamcha was comforting him now, but he wasn't willing to hear any of it. "It's not fine!" he snapped back. "You were bleeding everywhere and you couldn't even scream, now your eyes are all weird! You need to see someone!"
"Okay, okay." He relented, "But its already night, and we're both filthy now. Lets rest and we'll go to Bulma's in the morning. I needed to see her anyway"
"Good!" Puar let go of his friend. Yamcha just chuckled and pet Puar's head. "Lets get cleaned up, I'm exhausted. I feel like Goku turned into that giant monster and stepped on me."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~After a quick shower Yamcha collapsed into his bed. He hadn't been lying, his body was still recovering from all the changes. His bones ached and his eyes felt ready to burst. After briefly activating the byakugan earlier it was obvious he had moved too fast. It wasn't as bad as some incidents he remembered, but his vision had definitely blurred. He'd recover but he definitely needed rest. Puar settled on the pillow next to him. His shapeshifting friend was obviously still worried for him.
"Lets get to sleep. We'll head to West City in the morning." He said still trying to ease the worries of the little feline. After a few more placating words Puar eventually fell asleep.
Seeing Bulma would be weird. His recent changes had calmed him somewhat, and he suspected he would be a decent bit stronger now. With his exhaustion it was hard to tell, but based on his increased spiritual energy he should see an overall power increase.
"I have a few empty capsules, I think I'll try to bring a peace offering." Smiling at his idea he decided to meditate until he fell asleep. Meditation was good for soothing the mind and replenishing spent mental energy, and soothing is exactly what his mind needed now. He was still Yamcha, his longer life span and higher ki had made sure of that, but he was also more now. The desert bandit, the martial artist, student of the elusive turtle hermit; all of these things now were entangled with everything that Neji Hyuga was. Genius, ninja, warrior, martyr of the 4th great ninja world, and the most significant to his turbulent mind, branded member of the Hyuga branch family. How could sudden vivid memories of being what was essentially a child soldier and branded slave not rattle a man.
Despite all of these complicated emotions, he still smiled in his meditation. Because all of this new perspective made him excited. He was absolutely thrilled, because for the first time in Yamcha's life he could truly appreciate one thing.
He was completely and utterly free. He was free from the rigid expectations of a noble clan, and the harsh discrimination of being in the branch family. Free to express himself, free to train in whatever way he sees fit, free to push himself to his absolute limits and see how far he could actually go. He was even free to love whomever he wished, free to have a family with out the weight of knowing that any child he may bear would be branded with the same cruel mark that was inflicted upon him. As his mind began to slip into unconsciousness he was left with a contented smile, and one final thought.
"I'm alive and I'm free. I may have failed, I may have been fated to be a loser. But if the life of Neji Hyuga taught me anything, it's that the chains of fate can be broken"
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(A/N: And here we are! Sorry for the slight delay in posting, I was moving the passed few days and it took up most of my time. Chapter 6 will follow soon, and I'm working on getting a backlog of chapters to avoid having delays in the future. Let me know if you have any suggestions on love interests. Bulma is definitely on the table, but I do have other ideas. Lemme know what you guy's think!)