Naruto: The Akimichi Clan's Three Colored Pills, Explained

Highlights

The Three Colored Pills are a secret medicinal tool of the Akimichi Clan that can amplify the user's power by up to 100 times.
Consuming the pills converts the user's body fat into chakra, with each pill increasing the conversion rate. The red pill converts the entire body's fat, leaving the user on the brink of death.
The pills have a lethal drawback, poisoning the user's body and causing severe damage. Only members of the Akimichi Clan can use them effectively due to their trained bodies and excess fat reserves.

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio has many tricks up its sleeves, with each clan bringing its own set of secret techniques and tools into the mix. The Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi Clans each boast a secret Hiden jutsu that they bring to the formation, yet the Akimichi Clan has a secret tool of its own that gives it an edge over the others. The Three Colored Pills are a secret medicinal tool of the Akimichi Clan, capable of exacerbating the power of those that consume these pills by up to a hundred times.

With only one instance of usage in the Naruto series, the Three Colored Pills have left a lasting impact, becoming almost synonymous with the Akimichi Clan itself. While these pills are capable of endowing the user with great power, they also pose a lethal drawback — certain death. This deems the Three Colored Pills a last resort, though it still showcases the Akimichi Clan as a powerful bloodline in Konoha’s landscape.

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What are the Three Colored Pills?

True to its namesake, the Three Colored Pills are a collection of three pills with a specified color, each one granting its own set of power ups and strength amps. The pills are of green, yellow, and red hues, and they must be consumed in this respective order to be effective. The green pill is called the Spinach Pill, and it offers the least benefits out of the three pills, though its drawbacks are also rather negligible.

The yellow Curry Pill serves as the second stage of this technique, significantly amplifying chakra reserves and strength levels. However, the true power of the Three Colored Pills lies in the red Chilli Pill, capable of amplifying the user’s powers by one-hundred times. Unfortunately, this inexplicable power is also accompanied by a grave drawback, making the red pill only suitable as a last resort.

How Do the Three Colored Pills Work?

The Three Colored Pills have a unique mechanism that makes these medicines viable only for the Akimichi Clan members. Each pill forcibly converts the user’s body fat into chakra, meaning the power boost received by these pills entirely depends on how many excess reserves of fat the user has. Moreover, each pill gradually increases the amount of fat converted, with the Chilli Pill converting the entire body’s entire fat into chakra, leaving the user malnourished and on the brink of death.

The Three Colored Pills are only effective for the Akimichi Clan, since their bodies are trained to withstand the strain of the pills and fulfill the requirement of having excess fat reserves. If any regular shinobi were to consume any of these pills, their bodies would immediately succumb to the pill’s drawback due to a lack of fat reserves. Moreover, the poison imbued within these pills is another factor that bars non-Akimichi shinobi from utilizing the Three Colored Pills.

The Three Colored Pills’ Drawbacks

Amplifying a shinobi’s power by up to one-hundred times is surely absurd, with some even comparing this power to Might Guy’s Eight Inner Gates. However, the Three Colored Pills are balanced out by a significant drawback, and anyone foolish enough to solely rely on these pills would surely meet their demise. Each pill poisons the body, and the more potent ones have a higher concentration, leaving the user’s body severely damaged.

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However, the red Chilli Pill is where the true drawback lies, as it converts every single fat cell within the body into chakra, leaving the user at the brink of death. It was initially believed that there was no cure for the poison left behind by the pills, meaning death was imminent after ingesting the pills. Choji was only able to survive due to Lady Tsunade’s advanced medical ninjutsu, and the series also revealed that the Nara Clan had done extensive research on the Three Colored Pills’ poison, thereby aiding Choji’s recovery.

The Three Colored Pills’ Butterfly Mode

While Butterfly Mode itself is a separate technique of the Akimichi Clan, it’s also a by-product of ingesting the Three Colored Pills. Since this mode is achieved by converting calories into chakra, the pills aid the calorie conversion process and allow inexperienced users to access the Butterfly Mode as well. This is exactly how Choji was able to achieve this technique during his fight against Jirobo.

However, accessing Butterfly Mode via the Three Colored Pills is not recommended since the pills aggressively convert calories and fat into chakra, with no way to reclaim or reconvert that chakra into calories. Choji later masters the Butterfly Mode on his own through efficient calorie control, meaning the pills were no longer a prerequisite for him to access this hiden technique, a fact that explains why the pills were never used in the Naruto series again.

Naruto is available to stream on Prime Video.