The commanders sat frozen in their hideout. Their heart raced as the child's laughter faded from their communication devices.
They didn't realize that the laughter had begun to emanate from within their own minds.
Already, Suguru's infiltration had begun.
A faint, red dust had infiltrated the hideout just moments before, settling imperceptibly on their skin, pouring into their lungs, and wafting throughout the room.
A Genjutsu slowly consumed all those within its range.
"We need to report this immediately," the scarred commander said, his voice tight with urgency. He pulled out a scroll and began writing.
His hand trembled in his frantic attempt to pass on information.
His companions nodded in agreement, each believing they were taking decisive action against the Ghost's presence. One commander even left the hideout, convinced he was heading to alert reinforcements.
However, none of them had actually moved. Their bodies remained seated around the now-static-emitting radio, eyes glazed and unfocused, trapped in an illusion.
***
Outside the hideout, perched on a branch, Suguru observed his handiwork using a few of his clones who lingered nearby.
"Haha," A laugh escaped his lips as his silver eyes were glued onto the commanders gesturing at nothing, speaking to phantoms, and writing on imaginary scrolls.
The Genjutsu had already taken full effect.
"What a waste of talent," Suguru murmured.
Inside the illusion, the commanders continued their frantic reporting. They described the Ghost's abilities in detail. Some parts of their reports were real, while some had been fabricated by their own fear-addled minds.
They believed they were formulating countermeasures, deploying teams, and coordinating a response.
In their shared hallucination, they even congratulated themselves on their quick thinking and decisive leadership. One commander was certain he'd identified a pattern in the Ghost's movements that would lead to his capture.
"…Where did that come from?" Even Suguru didn't understand how his illusions had made them think that way.
After all, boasting was never a good sign for a supposedly rational and cold-hearted shinobi.
Seeing that, Suguru's lips curled into a wry smile as he watched their self-deception unfold.
Such a subtle Genjutsu was honestly terrifying. To make them willing participants in their own delusion was a feat he had recently taken the time to cultivate.
'Ever since taking Danzo's arm, my insights into the Genjutsu: Shinrakugan have indeed grown.'
Suguru smacked his lips.
'Still… I'm a bit far from what I can guess of Itachi's visual prowess.'
A genius was a genius, after all. The only reason Suguru could now match Shisui with the Body Flicker Jutsu was simply because he was a heavy user of it.
Genjutsu, on the other hand, wasn't something that Suguru did at first glance like Itachi.
He wasn't one to pull others into illusions to understand their personalities. He was more pragmatic and more… inclined to combat.
As for Itachi…
'It's a reflex. A part of who he is. Pulling people into a Genjutsu is something he does as if he were breathing.'
After all, Itachi never switched off his Sharingan, displaying a complete and perfect mastery.
Thus, Suguru couldn't help but wonder if Itachi had the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan already. With Shisui's eyes, it wouldn't have been difficult to do so.
***
While Suguru was lost in thought, the reports from each commander's warped minds poured in, a frantic set of misinformation and manufactured details about the Ghost of the Land of Rivers.
Suguru felt that there was a need to filter everything out as he gazed over their shoulders.
He learned about plans they were convinced they'd devised - initiatives to increase patrols, shadowing suspects, and a planned ambush at a set time and location.
None of it was genuine; a coherent strategy was born solely from fear. It was almost laughable, but also unnerving.
From it, Suguru could glean their organization's intent.
"Why is it so… amateuristic?" Suguru muttered, a hint of curious disdain in his voice.
Clues about the Hidden Leaf's intelligence network, standard protocols during emergencies, and enemy movements under the guise of a fabricated battle scene clung to the reports like barnacles.
All of it screamed, 'I don't know how to run a secret organization,'
But why?
Suguru plucked each detail from the sea of useless utterings and attempted to construct a mental map of the village's vulnerabilities.
…At least, according to what they knew.
He'd known he'd find a rather entertaining harvest here, but the sheer level of their self-deception surprised even him. There wasn't much to find.
The transparent smokescreens of their imaginary victories, their misplaced confidence, their inadequately disguised desperation – it all offered a supposed invaluable opportunity.
It was suspicious.
One of his clones even had his Sharingan put to work, spinning the data meticulously, compressing it into manageable bite-sized pieces of information.
"…Weird. Though I might be in need of a little... refinement."
Suguru deactivated his Genjutsu, and the commanders' glazed eyes snapped back into focus, as if waking from a sudden slumber.
"…Huh?" Came their gasps and breaths.
Their bodies twitched, readjusting to the quiet, as their minds were cleared from the Genjutsu's grasp.
It was then that the temperature began to rise.
'Fire Release,'
Several Suguru clones all weaved the same hand seals. What would equate to a jounin's entire reserves of chakra would thus be called upon and kneaded.
'…Hellfire Artillery!'
—VWHOOOM!
Fireballs, streaking like live comets, erupted from more than a dozen locations. Some were near, some were far.
And some were even standing within the village.
The sudden burst of flames from a collective set of clones sent the crowds into a panic.
Even Konoha's Anbu were forced to act; however, they all soon realized that the target of these fireballs seemed to be a place they had been busy scouting.
"…Stand back." Their captains would tell them. "There's no need for us to meddle for now. Sensory-nins, please monitor the situation.
Killing with a borrowed knife wasn't so bad, after all.
It saved them the risk.
—BOOM!
Shattering the peace within Konoha was a pillar of flames and an eruption of a blazing red bonfire.
It was a pure and unbridled injection of unrest.
Many people were confused by what was happening. Some of the more perceptible ones grew wary.
As for the commanders…
Suguru had long vanished into thin air. His clones hid and transformed before dissipating as well.
However, he had taken pleasure in watching the commanders' bodies combust even before the arrival of hellfire. Simply due to the rising temperature, their skin melted and their hair ignited.
Before the arrival of heavenly judgement streaking across the sky above, they already faced death.
All of them, despite their attempts to defend using Water Release, had been roasted alive.
Therefore.
Suguru did not need to continue watching. The reduction to ashes was a sight he had created many times before.
Each ashen battlefield contributed to his flaming Magnum Opus.
'This one's no exception.'