How many attacks can the Eight Trigram justu go up to?

Question

The Eight Trigram justu is a taijustu that uses the Gentle Fist style, which is passed down in main branch of the Hyūga clan. In both the original and Shippuden, Neji uses this ability multiple times through the series.

So far, we have seen 16 Palms, 32 Palms, 64 Palms, and 128 Palm (which is only seen during Neji's fight with Kidomaru.)

In that pattern, the amount of attacks are doubled for each variation. Is Eight Trigram justu limited to 128 attacks? If not, what is the highest number attacks it can go?

Answer 1

It wasn't stated that there was a limit to the amount of attacks he could do, but remember that jutsu is used to close off the chakra flow, and 128 Palms is enough to do that. Any more than that might:

• not have any effects, or
• the person might die

Answer 2

Even though this is answered, stating some useful information and facts.

The technique of Trigrams is to hit as many chakra points as possible consecutively (in powers of two, basically hit 2 times consecutively and then hit another 2, to make it 4 consecutive and so on). As you have told already, anime has shown up to 128 chakra points, whereas a human in the Naruto series has 361 Chakra points (Source).

Therefore it can go up to 256 palms because, after 256 palms, someone can't hit another 256 palms, making it 512.

And it has been stated multiple times that even hitting up to 64 palms can render an opponent unable to stand, therefore 256 may affect even the vitals of the opponents most likely killing them in turn (Source).

As the technique requires both speed and stamina along with precision, apparently no one throughout the series could reach 256 palms, who had enough speed, stamina, and precision for it. The most gifted Hyuga, Neji achieved the feat of 128 palms, which is the highest in the series, and probably in Hyuga history as well.

Answer 3

So, if I'm not mistaken, it may have been loosely stated that they can go up to the maximum amount of tenketsu in the body. If that's the case, they can go up to 361. But as Neji has only gone up to one hundred twenty eight, I'd say the more strikes there are, the harder it is to pull off, but if you did hit them all, there is only death at the end. With all tenketsu closed, no chakra can flow, and with that, you die.

Answer 4

My theory is that it goes up by multiplying the previous strike by 2.

For example: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128; we can see a 256 palm in the making.