"It's just a box…"
As he stepped out of Magami-sensei's manor, having spent the day training alongside his teammates under her watchful eye, Muyami noticed something unusual. A cardboard box sat on her front porch, set slightly to one side, so that no one might trip over it. A pleasant, citrussy aroma emanated from the box, which tracked given that the word mikan was written on its side.
A fruit delivery, perhaps?
"What's 'a matter, Muyami?" asked Kazami, noticing the intensity with which his diminutive, bespectacled teammate inspected the seemingly innocuous box.
According to Sakura's intelligence, Kazami, Muyami and Burami were part of a three-man team directly under the Grass Flower Group's leader, a kunoichi known as Magami. Although she had briefly crossed paths with them when she had led Shikamaru's team during the second wave of Chūnin exams, she wasn't very familiar with their abilities… but according to Hinata, who had encountered them during the second phase of the exams, Burami, the fat one, had an excellent sense of smell.
"Mandarin oranges…" Burami said, already salivating at the smell. "Hungry…"
"Hang on, Burami," Muyami said, pushing up his sunglasses with a finger. "This might be a trap from the Grass Seed Group… those shameless bastards are always trying to get one over sensei…"
"I should have a taste, just to buhi sure!"
Before Muyami could stop him, Burami seized the cardboard box and lifted it. Muyami ducked for cover, and…
"...it didn't explode?"
Muyami tentatively poked his head out from behind Kazami, still fearfully clutching the hem of his teammate's cloak. He had fully expected the inner walls of the box to be plastered with explosive tags, yet it seemed it had only been his overactive imagination playing tricks on him once again.
"It's another box," said Kazami in wonder. "It's like a game, yeah! Boxes all the way down!"
Indeed, there was another, slightly smaller box of satsumas inside the first.
"I can't eat boxes," Burami said, rapidly losing interest.
Weighing in at approximately three and a half Chōjis, Burami wasn't especially fond of standing around for extended periods for no good reason, even though, as a ninja, he was more than capable of doing so. Rather than playing around with what might be the nesting doll equivalent of cardboard boxes, he would much rather sit, so he lowered his immense bulk onto the bench just outside the manor…
"Eep!"
Kazami and Muyami whirled around. Was it just their imagination, or had that bench just squeaked in pain when Burami had sat on it!?
"What are you two looking at me like that for?" Burami said irritably. "So what if I farted?"
"I'm breaking!" Ino cried in pain.
POOF!
Without warning, the bench and the second box of satsumas erupted into puffs of white smoke as Ino and Sakura released their Transformation techniques. Ino immediately collapsed under Burami's weight, flattened beneath his fatty folds as he toppled over backwards.
"Shadow Possession Jutsu!"
Despite it being nighttime, Kazami, Muyami and Sakura were all casting shadows, thanks to the manor's porch lamps!
Sakura's shadow contorted and lengthened, connecting with theirs and stopping them in their tracks. Grunting with exertion, Burami jumped to his feet, but Sakura caught his eye, red and black blooming in her irises as she swapped from the Byakugan to the Sharingan, forcing him into an inescapable illusion.
"Damn it, it really was an enemy…!" Muyami said through gritted teeth. "HEL—"
"Mind Transfer Clone Jutsu!"
Before Muyami could raise his voice and call for help, a stream of chakra burst from Ino's chest, splitting in two and slamming into Muyami and Kazami. Seeing that Ino had successfully taken over the two men she had paralysed, Sakura retracted her shadow.
"That fat pig actually farted on me!" Ino snarled as she spoke from the pair's mouths in perfect sync, massaging their lower backs in pain. "Ugh, I thought I was going to snap in two!"
"I told you," Sakura said as she dragged Ino's limp body by the armpits and hid her behind a shrubbery. "You should have hidden under the cardboard box with me."
Muyami and Kazami shot her a glare.
"As if I'd ever get into a confined space with you," the two men said in perfect unison, imitating Ino's mannerisms with disconcerting precision. "I know you'd just loooove it if I did that, you overinflated lesbian!"
"You do realise I'm still holding your body, right?" Sakura said, snaking her hand under Ino's dress. "Oh, what's this?" she said in mock surprise. "Is that fat I'm feeling on your tummy? But this can't be, this isn't the Ino I know…"
"Stop groping my body!" Ino hissed through Muyami and Kazami. "I'm going to report you for sexual harassment!"
"And you're getting a month in jail for badmouthing the Hokage when we get back!"
Taking one arm each, Sakura and Ino dragged Burami's body behind a bush, out of sight and out of mind. The Saimingan's power would ensure he remembered nothing when he woke, and, for good measure, Sakura placed one of his snacks in his hand, so that he might assume he had simply fallen unconscious while gorging himself. As for the others under Ino's control, she had completely dominated them. They would naturally forget everything that had just transpired when she left their minds.
"You know, I've been meaning to ask…" Ino-Muyami and Ino-Kazami said moodily as they led Sakura into the mansion. "Why did you have Karin come back here? You know she has nothing but bad memories of this village, right?"
Karin never talked about her past with Sakura. Whenever they found the time to catch up, they would chat about this and that, skirting around anything too heavy. Girls' talk, basically.
"I knew she mustn't have had the easiest of times, given the number of bite marks on her body when we first met," Sakura replied uneasily. "But when I asked her to participate in this mission, she just said she was glad to help."
The two boys sighed.
"That's because she's in love with you. She doesn't want you to think of her as a burden," they said seriously. "You should be more mindful of her feelings, and… if you've no intention of returning her love, then you should at least stop leading her on."
In this timeline, Sakura thought to herself, Karin had taken her place as the useless girl on the team. So, when danger had reared its head, she had ordered Karin to run and hide, implicitly telling her… that she was in the way.
Even though it was the logical move, as Karin wouldn't be of much help if Danzō's battle alerted Kusagakure to their presence, and as she would be a liability to the outnumbered surveillance team (since Tenten could also use Hinata's senses to teleport), Sakura knew she must have hurt her feelings.
"I'll talk to her after the mission," Sakura said quietly.
Magami, the leader of the Grass Flower Group, was just ahead, in the courtyard.