In a town some distance from Konoha, the sun was yet to rise, but the owner of a department store was awake early, as were the two Kunochi she had hired, in the stockroom of her shop. One was pink haired, and wore a one piece swimsuit in red and green, a diagonal cut from shoulder to hip splitting the colours. The other had long dark-blue hair, and wore a pale green-and-yellow sundress over a pair of white cycling style shorts, but also had pale white eyes. And on the clothing the two wore, there were still price tags.

 Apart from these three women, the shop was empty, other than many mannequins.

Displays of clothing were in every department, not just the actual clothes section. They were used as decoration, and stood alongside other items, smaller and valuable ones that shoplifters had somehow been able to snatch almost completely unseen, except for a handful of lucky breaks from floor workers... only for the thief to seemingly vanish as soon as they went around a corner.

"I have to say again, this seems like a very unusual plan," the Owner said.

The pink-haired Kunochi of the pair gave a gentle smile.

"I know it sounds strange but we've had a few missions in the past like this, though I wasn't involved in them myself. From the sounds of it your shoplifters have some Ninja training. They know how to evade your regular staff, they've been able to hide even when spotted. That means that unless we're hiding well ourselves, they might be able to figure out we're onto them," Sakura Haruno said.

"And the best spots to keep an eye on the whole floor are your clothing displays," Hinata Hyuuga added.

"Yes, but, mannequins aren't very detailed. Surely they'll notice living people standing there, no matter how still you can be," The Owner frowned.

"Well, that's the interesting part," Sakura smiled, and began making hand seals.

With a puff of chakra laden smoke,  Sakura was obscured from view... and in her place stood a blank eyed, pink-haired mannequin.  It held one hand on its hip, had a sculpted smile on its face, and had lines for joints on the legs and shoulders. The Owner gasped and almost fell over as she jumped back.

"Did she swap places with a mannequin?!"

Hinata shook her head.

"No, this is Sakura. She's used a jutsu to become a mannequin."

To prove the point, Hinata gently rapped on Sakura's plastic arm, a hollow echo emitting.

With another puff of smoke, the mannequin became Sakura once more.

"And we can turn ourselves back with a little mental push. So, we hide as mannequins, see your thief, and can get after him."

"...In a swimsuit?"

Sakura shrugged.

"We make do. If Naruto was available he'd have been able to use shadow clones to fill the place with mannequins, but we don't have the chakra to do that. Staying as mannequins takes up some energy so if we tried to use clones you'd get us for about six hours, and having one of your displays just vanish halfway through the day could be a problem. The three of us should cover most of the shop ourselves though, whenever Ino actually arrives..."

The Owner still had doubts, but decided to go along with this plan. Hinata's planned spot was closest to the staff room, so she took her place beside two other mannequins in similar dresses.

"Hinata here, me in swimwear, and the other ninjas you hired can be around the rest of the place

With hand signals and the puff of smoke, the blue-haired kunochi became a blue haired mannequin, pale skin now plastic sheened, white eyes blank and the same fleshtone as the rest of her face. The small gentle smile was now moulded in. Seams on her neck and shoulders were visible. She stood with both hands on her hips.

"Hmm, seems to be missing something.... Aha!" Sakura realised, grabbing a nearby pair of sunglasses and a hat, placing them onto Hinata.

"There!"

"And... She can turn back when she wants to?" The Owner said, rapping on Hinata's arm much as she had done to Sakura a few moments ago.

"Yup! Now, there's a swimsuit display was at the front, right? See, I have to be honest, the other kunochi who hasn't arrived yet? I wanna play a prank on her for showing up late...." Sakura grinned.

In her mannequin-head, Hinata sighed. Sakura had said she wasn't going to do that, but hey, it wasn't her being ambushed. Hopefully Ino wouldn't be too annoyed.

Then again, she was the one who decided to not come along at 5AM like her and Sakura.