The of the Leaf: Head to the Sound Village (Karin Uzumaki)

Really, his two real options were either heading to the Sand village, located in the Land of Wind, or the Sound village, located in the Land of Rice. Of the two, he chose to head to the Land of Rice for a few reasons.

The first reason was distance. In order to reach the Sand Village, he would have to go through a border state like the Land of Rivers or the Land of Storm, before traversing through the harsh desert on foot before reaching the village. It was an expedition that would take months. Having done the math, it would leave him with a mere two months with which to explore the village before he had to head back, not really the time frame he was going for.

By contrast, the road to the Sound Village was much simpler. The Land of Rice was located on the northern border of the Land of Fire, so all Izuko had to do was keep heading straight from Konoha, and he would would eventually reach the country in a matter of weeks.

He could further cut down that time by taking advantage of his status as a diplomat from the Leaf, something that he had 'negotiated' with Tsunade before he left. His new position came with the perk of getting him free rides on boats and the like.

These two things combined ensured that it took little more than a week for him to reach the Land of Rice, but once inside, he ran into a minor inconvenience. As it so turned out, the Village Hidden in the Sound wasn't really a village after all. It was a collection of labs and research facilities.

The village was founded by Orochimaru, the Snake Sennin, a former missing-ninja from the Leaf who was obsessed with immortality. In order to extend his lifespan, Orochimaru had dabbled in hundreds of human experiments, and to conduct said experiments, he needed both resources and test subjects.

At the end of the day, that is what the Sound Village was made to do. Provide humans for Orochimaru to experiment on, as well as resources with which to experiment with.

This had both an inbuilt complication and advantage for Izuko.

The advantage was that thanks to Orochimaru's interests, he had done a vast amount of research that could benefit the Leaf. The ninja of Sound tended to fight less with jutsu like other villages, and more with body modifications. Examples of this included tubes in the hand that shot out highly pressurized air waves, strong enough to tear grooves into a forest.

In order to forward said research to the Leaf though, Izuko would have to locate the base, which is where the complication was. How would you go about locating secret research labs?

Most Hidden Villages weren't actually hidden. They depended on clients taking missions to keep their economies going. If clients couldn't find the village, that would throw a wrench in things. By contrast, Sound didn't take missions, so it was actually hidden.

Eventually though, Izuko stumbled onto someone wearing the Sound headband, signified by a quarter-note, on his second day in the country. It was a good stroke of fortune, one that Izuko wasn't willing to question. After using ample normality commands, Izuko had learnt that the village was actually divided into eight hideouts, only one of which was located in the Land of Rice.

The one that Izuko was in range of was the 'Land of Rice base,' the headquarters of the Sound Village. The other labs were the 'Kusagakure Hideout' located near the Grass Village, the Southern Hideout located off the coast of Wave Country, the Northern Hideout (location unknown), the Eastern Hideout (also unknown), the Island laboratory, and the Demon Island Laboratory.

Of the eight hideouts, the person Izuko was talking about was only aware of the locations of three of them. When Izuko pressed him on why that was, the explanation he got was curious.

Apparently, Orochimaru had developed a psuedo-immortality jutsu that allowed him to switch host bodies every three years or so. He had determined that his next body was going to be Sasuke Uchiha and had chosen to use the time in between switching bodies to train Sasuke's body up to standards. The best place to do this, in Orochimaru's opinion, was the Kusagakure Hideout.

This meant that with Orochimaru and his lieutenants all away, the headquarters of sound would have been virtually undefended. Orochimaru recognized this so he had called upon ninja from one of his outlying bases, the Southern Hideout in Wave Country, to return to headquarters in order to defend it.

The problem is, Orochimaru hadn't left anyone competent in charge. The temporary commander of the Sound Hideout wasn't even a combatant. This resulted in the commander being unable to maintain control over their forces and random ninja's trapezing around the country without a care in the world.

That, coincidentally, is how Izuko had stumbled onto his informant.

Satisfied with the information he had been given, Izuko gave one last normality command. Without a word his informant turned and began leading him the Sound headquarters for an audience with his commander.

What the grunt that Izuko had interrogated had forgotten to mention was who the commander was.

When Izuko pictured a grunt under the command of Orochimaru, he had pictured something serpentine. A male with cracked skin and yellow eyes that spoke in hisses and had slits for a nose, for instance.

Shows me not to stereotype, Izuko thought to himself while eyeing the commander up and down.

The commander was female for a start. She was also fairly attractive.

Her hair was crimson, the color of freshly spilt blood, and was cut oddly. She had chosen to keep the right side short and spiky, while she had chosen to grow her left side out, letting it fall straight down her back. Her eyes were also a crimson color, one Izuko didn't think was natural in humans. Despite being covered up by her thin brown glasses, they were easily noticeable.

Allowing his eyes to trail down further, Izuko noted that her outfit conversely showed a lot of skin while showing next to nothing. Her breasts, which Izuko judged to be modest B-cups, were covered up entirely by a lavender uniform. The uniform diverged near the navel though, flaring out on both sides of her hips, leaving her midriff bear.

The grunt had mentioned the commander wasn't a warrior, which Izuko could see fairly well. The commander's midriff was toned, but not nearly as rock solid as most of his other sluts. She looked a lot softer. This extended to her thighs as well, left visible under her tiny black shorts.

Her shorts may not cover much, but her stocking actually came up to mid thigh, so once more, very little of her skin was actually visible.

The end result was that the commander was difficult to describe. Her outfit gave off the impression of being slutty while still covering everything important. A perfect mixture of the ice-queen and sexy-librarian stereotypes.

Admittedly, some of the ice-queen vibe came from the scowl she was sending him. She did not look happy to see him.

"What do you want?" she all but growled out, momentarily putting Izuko on the defensive. He wasn't happy to stay their though, so he searched for a way to turn this around. After a moment, Izuko had it. Quickly he whispered, "It is normal for you to believe that I am who I say I am."

"Greetings commander," Izuko began imperiously, straightening his posture and glaring down at her from the edge of his nose, "I am here on the orders of Lord Orochimaru. He has heard that you were having trouble controlling your ninja, and is most," Izuko paused here, relishing in the look of dread on Karin's face, "displeased. He has sent me here to straighten out the situation. You may retain the title of commander, but make no mistake, from now on and until further notice, it is me you answer to."