[The only other ninja was Uchiha Sasuke... and his bloodline did have strong genjutsu types. But, he had no reason to cast a genjutsu on them.]

... I cast a dispelling jutsu when I first saw Sh--the apparition but it didn't go away. I thought it was real, but if you saw apparitions too then maybe the dispelling jutsu didn't work.... or maybe it wasn't a genjutsu like we know it.