S1E13 - How did substitution jutsu work here?

I just started watching the show, so I'm still trying to understand the logistics behind each move. in S1E13 - Haku's Secret Jutsu, Naruto saves Inari and his mom when they are on the bridge as the henchmen go to attack Inari. I'm assuming that the chopped log shown would have been Inari had he not been moved. I know that logs are commonly used for substitution jutsu, but I thought only the user of the move can substitute themselves -- users don't use this to switch the places of two things.

In this case, this would mean either 1. Inari pulled off the move (seems highly unlikely) or 2. Naruto somehow disguised himself as Inari and then made the substitution (which also seems wrong because then Naruto telling Inari he did a good job distracting would not make sense).

Does anyone have any insight or did I miss anything obvious?