Chōji Akimichi

is one of the main supporting characters of the series. He is a Chūnin-level Shinobi of Konohagakure, a member of the Akimichi clan, as well as a member of the chūnin team, Team Asuma, which was formerly led by Asuma Sarutobi. Alongside Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka, he forms the new Ino-Shika-Cho, just like their fathers before them.

Background
When Chōji was younger, he was often put down for not being good at a children's game called "Ninja", which appears to be a cross between tag and hide and seek, often using shuriken made out of cardboard. His peers were always berating him, telling him that any team that he was on was bound to lose. One day, they simply refused to let him play at all. However, Shikamaru stuck up for him, saying that the teams would be uneven if Chōji didn't join them. This gave Chōji a little hope, although, in the end, they still refused to let him play.

Chōji and his father were later seen talking on the roof of a building where Chōji was still upset over the way he was treated by the other children. His father told him that few people have a heart as kind and caring as his, and one day he would meet someone who would see that in him and respect him for it, and that eventually they would be the best of friends. Soon after, Shikamaru walked up the stairs. Chōji recognized him as the one who had defended him earlier. He asked Shikamaru why he wasn't playing the game, to which Shikamaru responded that it was a drag. He then told Chōji that he liked to come up there to watch the clouds and that Chōji happened to be sitting in his spot. Chōji moved over to give him room. Shikamaru proceeded to lie down before telling Chōji that he should watch the clouds with him. This delighted Chōji, and he eagerly asked Shikamaru if he wanted to eat some snacks that he had brought. Shikamaru took him up on the offer, causing Chōji to be overjoyed, then Shikamaru said "This is the best, watching clouds and eating chips". From that day on, the two became the best of friends.

During Chōji's time at the academy, he was often caught eating in class otherwise getting into trouble along with fellow 'Dead-Lasts' Shikamaru Nara, Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru, and Naruto Uzumaki. Together, these five would cut class or otherwise be testing the patience of Iruka Umino, their Academy teacher. During the 'Find Tsunade' arc, when Naruto was struggling to learn the second step of training for the Rasengan, he recalled how once, during his days at the academy, he, along with Shikamaru, Kiba and Akamaru, and Chōji were held back in class, and lectured about their all around lack in concentration - in Chōji's case, he was thinking more about food than about doing his school work. During the arc involving the trap master Gennō from the long-gone Kagerō Village, it was mentioned how Shikamaru, Chōji, Kiba and Akamaru, and Naruto would skip class together and hang out at the kunai practice course, which was situated under the academy, to hide from Iruka-sensei.

Personality
Chōji is easily motivated by the prospect of food, and becomes highly agitated when somebody calls him "fat" (he refers to himself as "big boned", "chubby", or "pleasingly plump"). However, he does not hide his love for food, wearing the kanji for "eat" on his shirt. His nigh-constant hunger is also a constant annoyance to his teammates, as sating himself often comes before other necessities such as stealth and teamwork. Food can also make him over-react about silly things, such as who gets the last piece of meat, or when Akamaru tried to take his food. Chōji also tends to eat a lot when he is angry.

Chōji has a long-standing friendship with Shikamaru. The two have complete trust in each other, with Shikamaru being one of the few people to look past Chōji's athletic deficiencies, and see that he was good-hearted, and recognizing Chōji's true strength. Because of this, Chōji has unconditional faith in Shikamaru and, if necessary, would give his life for him.

Chōji is a very kind and caring person, that both his father and Asuma have said is his greatest strength.

Appearance
Chōji has brown hair, swirl marks on his cheeks, and like the rest of his clan, he has a much rounder physique than most other people. Since his childhood, he has always been quite overweight, despite always claiming he was merely husky. During Part I, Chōji's wore grey shorts, a rather large white scarf, a short-sleeved green jacket over a white shirt with his clan's emblem on it, ring earrings, and his legs and forearms were wrapped in bandages. His Leaf forehead protector was also worn on a bandanna around his head.

During Part II, he sports a red top with armor on his torso, arms, and upper legs, similar to his father. On the front of his chest armor is the obligatory kanji for "eat". His brown hair has grown much longer, changes his earrings from rings to studs, and he now looks less overweight and more muscular, just like what he himself had always claimed: big-boned.

Abilities
Chōji's most pronounced ability is his tremendous physical strength. Shikamaru hinted at Chōji's raw power during the Sasuke Retrieval arc, but it wasn't until he broke them out of Jirōbō's Earth Release Barrier: Earth Prison Dome of Magnificent Nothingness that the rest of Team Shikamaru believed him. He is also shown to be proficient in hand-to-hand combat, as seen when he flipped Jirōbō, a skilled practitioner of the art, over without seeming to use much effort. He is not, however, particularly fast in his movements.

Akimichi Clan Techniques
As an Akimichi, Chōji knows various secret jutsu that allow him to expand body parts to several times their normal size, the most common of which is the Multi-Size Technique. He uses this to perform his Human Bullet Tank attack, where he turns himself into a giant ball and attacks opponents by running them over, shouting "roll" repeatedly as he does. He can also add spikes to this attack to make it more damaging with a chain of kunai.

After the time skip, Chōji's Spiked Human Bullet Tank does not involves kunai wrapped around him, but instead involves a technique that turns his hair into extremely sharp spikes that cover his body, similar to Jiraiya's Needle Jizō technique, after which Chōji spins rapidly. Also, Chōji no longer needs to take any pills for Partial Multi-Size Technique.

Three Pills
Chōji can take the Akimichi clan's Three Colored Pills to greatly increase his strength, speed, and stamina for a short time. These pills convert the body's fat reserves into chakra, and are considered a last resort, since they take a tremendous toll on the body. The last pill is said to increase the clan member power 100 times than normal, but known to be always fatal, although Chōji survived the effects, thanks to the Nara clan's medical book.

Originally, Chōji requires to take these pills in order to use the more advanced Partial Multi-Size and Super Multi-Size Techniques. After two and a half years, however, he can rely on his own improved chakra to do so, without the pills forcing it out for him.

Chūnin Exam arc
During the second phase of the Chūnin Exams, Chōji was reluctant to join his team in helping Sakura Haruno fend off a team of Sound Genin, fearing for his own safety, and continuously asking to run. However, when Zaku Abumi called Chōji "fatso", Chōji proceeded to go berserk as he defended his size, and yelled that Konoha and the Sound ninja were now at war. Properly motivated, Chōji fought against the Sound Genin, but were unable to defeat them. His actions, however, bought time until Sasuke Uchiha awakened and forced them to retreat with the power of the Cursed Seal.

In the preliminaries of the exam, Chōji began feeling hesitant about fighting, but Asuma convinced him to fight, promising to treat him to barbecue if he won, and to intervene if he was in danger. In the last match of the preliminaries, Chōji was matched against Dosu. At the start of the match, Ino yelled to him that he was fat, so that he would be spurred into fighting. Using his Human Bullet Tank to charge at Dosu, Chōji got lodged in a wall as a result of Dosu dodging the attack. With Chōji unable to fight back, Dosu sent a blast of sound into Chōji's bulk, its effectiveness increased as a result of Chōji's increased size, thus defeating Chōji. As a reward to Chōji for getting so far in the Chūnin Exams, and as a bribe to help with Shikamaru's training, Asuma took Chōji to a buffet, but Chōji ate too much and hurt his stomach, forcing him to spend some time in the hospital. He recovered in time to watch Shikamaru and Sasuke's matches, but was put to sleep during the ensuing invasion of Konoha.

Sasuke Retrieval arc
Shortly after Shikamaru's promotion to Chūnin, the team celebrated at Yakiniku Q. After a brief argument over the meat, Asuma told Chōji that he should eat less and train more. While Chōji was briefly depressed, Shikamaru convinced him to be himself.

When Sasuke Uchiha abandoned Konoha, Shikamaru asked Chōji to join the Sasuke Retrieval Squad, to which Chōji refused. Determined to have Chōji come with them, Shikamaru and Naruto Uzumaki ate some of Chōji's favorite snacks in front of his house. When they got to the last chip, Chōji burst through the front door to eat it, saying that the last chip was sacred and cannot let someone else have it. Having fallen for Shikamaru's trick, Chōji joined the team to retrieve Sasuke.

At the start of the mission, Chōji took on the Sound Four member Jirōbō. Jirōbō initially proved to be too strong for Chōji to beat, forcing Chōji to use the Akimichi clan's special Three Colored Pills. Although reluctant to use the pills, Jirōbō's constant mocking of Shikamaru as a selfish and uncaring leader convinced Chōji to take all three pills. With the accompanying increase in strength, he was able to kill Jirōbō, but collapsed, and was left near death as a result. The Nara clan's medical guide and Tsunade's medical expertise allowed Chōji to evade death and make a full recovery.

Anime filler arcs
Chōji appeared for a few of the anime's filler arcs, one of which was to help rescue the daughter of the Ichiraku Ramen Bar owner. To save the daughter, Chōji and his teammates were forced to create the perfect ramen, to which Chōji assisted by tasting the noodles and improving their quality when they didn't meet his approval.

During the filler arcs, Chōji demonstrated a working knowledge of the relationship between ninja and food: in Episode 158, ''Follow My Lead! The Great Survival Challenge'', the Academy students were divided into teams of three, and were assigned a genin to lead them on a mission against the other teams. Chōji was assigned to lead a team of three academy students; Dango, Ame and Choco. On route, Chōji imparted to them the importance of being able to acquire food during a mission, introducing a plant called the "Ninja-Aid Plant", which is edible and nutritious. Chōji even stopped one of his team from eating the wrong plant, the "Ninja Blockage Plant", which while it looked similar to the Ninja-Aid Plant, it was in fact noxious, and Chōji identified the difference between their leaves.

In Episode 168, ''Mix It, Stretch It, Boil It Up! Burn, Copper Pot, Burn!'', it was Chōji who knew about the Cooking-nin of the Land of Lightning, whose purpose was to provide their country's active ninja with food, as on a mission in the field, where food may be scarce, gathering food was such a chore that cooking-nin were supposed to do this job themselves, allowing for the other ninja to focus on their mission and not worry about gathering food.

Chōji made a number of cameos in other arcs, often aiding his fellow Genin in accomplishing missions. In one arc, Chōji was teamed with Naruto in fighting a water-jutsu user, and the two were frequently able to save the life of the other. After Hinata defeated the second of the three ninja, and was badly injured in the process, Naruto sent her away with Chōji. The two were captured, but Shikamaru and several other ninja saved them.

Sasuke and Sai arc
Chōji made his Part II debut shortly after Naruto returned from successfully rescuing Gaara. Like most of the rookie nine, he had reached the Chūnin rank. Chōji had also improved his skills during the timeskip, and was now able to enlarge various parts of his body without much concentration. His reaction time had also increased, being able to immediately prevent an attack by Sai from harming Shikamaru or Naruto.

Chōji was then seen in Konoha together with the Team Asuma. Sai was surprised to see them after his encounter with them. Team Kakashi and Team Asuma then had to eat on a restaurant where they have bonded and developed friendship. Sai started giving nicknames to everyone. Sai is about to call Chōji fatty when Naruto covered his mouth to prevent his anger.

Twelve Guardian Ninja arc
While Sora explores Konoha and had started walking around, Chōji have appeared while Sora and Kiba were fighting because of Sora's insult to Akamaru. Sora then insults Chōji because of his size which made him mad. Chōji then started fighting Sora and other ninjas appear to join the riot. Shikamaru and Asuma then moderated the situation as Shikamaru paralyzes them and Asuma scolded them.

Furido then summoned four of the Twelve Guardian Ninjas to destroy Konoha. Meanwhile, a horde of zombie ninjas attacked Konoha under the summoning of Furido. Chōji along with Ino, Shikamaru, Kiba, Akamaru, Rock Lee, Izumo and Kotetsu have fought them. Though, the zombies never decreased in number until Furido's jutsu was dispelled.

Chōji along with his team mates have backed up for Team Yamato when the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's chakra have been unleashed in Sora's body. Shikamaru ordered Chōji to stop him by his jutsu and hold him tightly. This jutsu became effective until Sora heats up and have inflamed Chōji's hand. Chōji was then defeated. The other ninjas started their attacks but were all defeated by the power of the Nine-Tails within Sora.

Sora, now having four tails, attacked Chōji and the team, but Yamato was able to shield them with a shield made up of his wood jutsu. Sakura then finds a time to heal Chōji's burned hands but have failed like Ino's attempt to heal him. Sakura then states that wounds caused by the Nine-Tails cannot be easily healed. Though, Sakura continues healing Chōji though it took time.

After the encounter with Sora, all became back to normal. Chōji with the other ninjas have said farewell to Sora.

Hidan and Kakuzu arc
Chōji arrived with Ino as back-up for Shikamaru and Asuma in their fight with Akatsuki members Hidan and Kakuzu. As the Akatsuki pair fled due to their arrival, Chōji prepared to take the fatally injured Asuma back to Konoha for treatment. Asuma, however, knew that he wouldn't make it back to Konoha, and gave some parting words to his team. He told Chōji that  he considered him a kind-hearted boy, who thinks about his friends, and, therefore, may be a stronger ninja than anyone else, and to simply believe in himself. Asuma also told Chōji to diet a bit more, and Chōji said that, while it was difficult, he would try. Chōji then reminisces his memories with Asuma like the day when they were asigned to him as students and he treated them for a meal and Chōji had ordered a banquet, which hurt Asuma's economy. Chōji then cried. After smoking one last cigarette, Asuma died, leaving Chōji, Shikamaru, and Ino to set out in an attempt to avenge him.

When the remaining members of Team 10 distracted Hidan and Kakuzu, Chōji attacked the two with his Spiked Human Bullet Tank, its effectiveness increased with his new ability to grow and sharpen his hair. Later, when Kakuzu's masks charged at Chōji and his team, Chōji used Mega Palm Thrust to crush the masks and keep them at bay. His attempt was unsuccessful, and Kakuzu was able to pin him down. Later, after Naruto arrived and defeated Kakuzu, Chōji returned to Konoha with the rest of his team, noting that Naruto's defeating Kakuzu made him "cool", even if not as much so as Shikamaru.

Invasion of Pain arc
When Pain began his invasion, Chōji and his father arrived at the scene of Kakashi and Pain's fight, stunning Pain's Asura Path. After the Deva Path launched a counter-attack at them, Chōji and Chōza tried to distract the Path so Kakashi could land a finishing blow. Their effort failed, resulting in Chōza being gravely injured. Kakashi, unable to move, sent Chōji to tell Tsunade about the Deva Path's ability. Though believing his father to be dead, Chōji did as instructed, and was delighted to learn from Tsunade that his father was alive. He went to attend to his father, and stayed with him during the destruction of Konoha. After witnessing Kakashi returning to life, Chōji greeted Naruto as he returned to Konoha, supporting Shikamaru on his shoulder.

Five Kage Summit arc
Chōji is seen comforting Ino after Teams Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai agree that Sasuke must be stopped. He is also noted by Shikamaru to want revenge if Ino was to be killed. Along with the rest of Konoha 11, Chōji is prepared to kill Sasuke.

Creation and conception
"Chōji" means "butterfly (Chō-)" and "the second son (-ji)" added together. Butterflies are insects known to eat sweets. Chōji also manifests butterfly wings made of chakra after eating the third red pill during his fight against Sound Four Ninja Jirōbō. The names "Ino," "Shika" and "Chō" are also a pun on the "Ino-Shika-Chō" winning combination in Hanafuda.

Trivia

 * While Ino has regularly ridiculed Chōji for his excess weight, in one filler arc, Ino also stated that his weight is essential to effectively use his clan's secret techniques.
 * Chōji was the only member of the original 15 genin to not be ranked within the top 30 characters in the sixth and most recent Naruto character popularity poll. He was not ranked among the top 30 in the fifth poll either. The only poll he placed in was the fourth where he was ranked 21st most popular character.
 * According to the databook:
 * Chōji's hobby is buying and eating snacks.
 * While Chōji doesn't wish to fight anyone in particular, Chōji will fight anyone as long as there is food involved.
 * Chōji's favorite foods are Korean barbecue and junk food, whilst his least favorite food is anything inedible.
 * Chōji has completed 39 official missions in total: 17 D-rank, 13 C-rank, 6 B-rank, 3 A-rank, 0 S-rank.
 * Chōji's favorite word is "meat".
 * Statistically, Chōji is the weakest member of his age group.

Quotes

 * (To Shikamaru) "I won't let even you eat the last barbecue chip!"
 * "Fat!? I'm big boned!"
 * (To Jirobo) "I can't forgive you for calling me fat! But even more than... Not just for stealing the last chip... or calling me fat... most importantly I won't forgive anyone who insults my best friend!