The Seven Sins.
Gluttony.
Disclaimer: I just ate sooo much Ben&Jerry's…yum. I'm fat. Love me.
Gluttony was obviously Chouji's sin.
The boy just loved to eat. He loved prime rib, miso soup, egg noodles, ramen, chips, especially the BBQ kind. Damn it, he loved food in every way possible, and no matter how many times his sensei Sarutobi Asuma had warned him against the bad habit of over-eating, Akimichi Chouji continued to do so.
Instead of taking the valuable advice, the chubby boy would either take offense and pout, or he would call his teacher a hypocrite for continuing on with an equal if not greater bad habit: smoking cigarettes.
It got worse when the chain-smoking jounin died. And it wasn't even from the cancer-sticks, it was a horrible tragedy that Chouji saw break his best friend: Shikamaru. He saw the genius' kind side smash into millions of little pieces. It was the same tragedy that made Ino turn into an on-again off-again workaholic, forcing her body to not concentrate on the horrific things happening to the people she was closest to. And he in turn, drowned out what harsh things his teammates were doing to themselves, by indulging himself in more and more food.
And he didn't notice how much damage he had been doing to his body until they told him that he was almost un-eligible to continue his career as a ninja.
He remembered being so upset, he'd been close to rolling over Akamaru in his Human Boulder state. Which would've been very horrible, and would've added to his guilt. So he'd worked with Tsunade to lower his weight and dumb down his massive intake of food.
Which had worked…for awhile.
And then Kurenai had told Shikamaru that she was pregnant…and that it was Asuma's. Way to add to the stress, right? Well, so now Shikamaru was working even harder towards his goal to kill Asuma's murderer, and he was turning into the regular Uchiha, which was hell. Shikamaru's increased efforts to shut everyone out caused Chouji to have to work harder to keep his friend sane, which meant less time for eating.
And he lost more weight.
Soon enough, Shikamaru had slipped through his fingers, and Ino had pushed him away as well. Once more, Chouji had turned to food- now his only friend. And he had been with that friend for a good few months until Shikamaru was within reach again.
And Shikamaru was back now, and they were best friends again, and Ino was speaking to them more than she had before, (mostly to Shikamaru…Chouji figured they had something going on) and everything was getting as normal as it could get.
Then, Uchiha Sasuke came back to the village and caused yet another up roar. The village was called to the circle to vote on wether he should be allowed to stay, and the ninja were to vote last. Surprisingly, it was exactly equal when they got to Chouji- who was unfortunately the last to vote, which meant at that moment in time: he was the one to decide the boy's fate.
Talk about pressure.
Sure, the Hokage and the Council could probably over-turn the citizen's verdict, but they probably wouldn't, unless totally necessary.
So Chouji ate, and Chouji thought.
Team seven would be absolutely horrified if he decided to vote no, they had been after Sasuke for years, and to send him away now would be another betrayal by a friend. He could almost picture their hopeful and trusting stares when he revealed his vote.
The chubby boy inhaled ramen as he continued to weigh his options, not thinking about his own weight again. And in the end, he had gained nine pounds and decided that yes, Uchiha Sasuke should be given a second chance.
And well, it didn't really do him any good. Ino began talking to him more and including him in her plans with Shikamaru, but really, nothing developed from his good deed, or what he considered his good deed.
And then Kurenai had her baby.
Shikamaru once again became distant, spending ridiculous amounts of time with Asuma's child, his only excuse that he vowed to protect it.
The third time Shikamaru stood him and Ino up, she burst into tears.
"I think he loves that baby more than me," She sobbed into his shoulder, and then they ate, both of them, and had to hand over their entire months' pay to cover the check.
He was a glutton, and he knew it.
And there wasn't a damn thing he could do to stop it.
It was around now that things had finally begun to fall into place.
They had all just taken their jounin exams- (Naruto said he'd wait to take his until Sasuke could, Sakura didn't want to take hers without Naruto, and made Ino promise to wait with her, who made Shikamaru wait, and with Shikamaru waiting, Chouji didn't want to take his by himself! Hinata had been dating Naruto when he'd suggested the waiting, and her team had waited as well.) all had passed, and all were mainly getting along.
But Chouji was still hungry for some friendship, it seemed to him that he was a social pariah. His best friend was passed out on the table beside him, being draw on without a care and Ino was across the table, practically in Naruto's lap, glaring at Shikamaru's form every now and then. So he did what he knew how- the poor boy ate.
Two down, five to go! :)