Michael
A slow blow of air through her nostrils gave away the girl's relief. Neither of them were out of the woods yet, but the threat of an instant death made focusing much easier. She needed all the brainpower she could muster to unpack the girl's troubles.

First things first – their client, who must have heard the screaming. For him, she managed to force on a smile. Something told her nobody would buy it, but it was worth a try. "We don't anticipate their return. Our message was heard, loud and clear. Please, would you give us a moment to finish our business here?" The man looked back and forth between them. The tension, palpable in the air, convinced him to retreat into the back room once more. 

Her gaze returned to Kazuko but she waited for the sound of a shut door before she spoke. "Kazuko, I..." She stopped herself before she'd even begun. The mental minefield that was Kaguya Kazuko called for much more tact than she'd expected. At least she was calm... Er. Enough to navigate the conversation as she had been trained to.

"I cannot pretend to know your life, but from what you've said, it hasn't been fun. It is... Difficult for me to apologise for that. We both know that I had as much a part to play in that as you did. I don't even know why it was done." A half-truth – it was difficult to imagine that Senju Asurama was working in anything other than the village's best interests. Sense told Hibiki that suggesting clan massacre could have helped Nora wouldn't go down well.

"What I do know is what I see in front of me. A genin pigeonholing herself to be what many dread from her family. A girl that's put a lot of practise into being the perfect representation of her clan. We..." Her gaze hit the floor, just for a second. "We are not that different, in that regard." The words hunt in the air – not for dramatic effect, but because her mind strayed for a moment. Honesty always added weight to words, but having to tell truths about herself was uncomfortable. Difficult, even. Still, if her cutting words were going to demand that of the raging girl, going first was the least she could do.

"For all the fear you've tried to raise here, who is scared the most?" People liked to pretend that words didn't hold power – the Kaguya included. And yet, Kazuko was still there, still listening, barely containing herself. Hibiki remained too, carefully dancing around an outright accusation, lest her face met something solid in a hurry.

"You don't have to answer me, but I hope you will consider it. And I hope that, one day, somebody gets to see the real Kaguya Kazuko. Perhaps not me, but someone. Everybody deserves to be themselves... At some point or another." Another pause, as she realised why she had even bothered talking. Most sane shinobi would had left minutes ago. Why waste time on a ball of rage, with little to gain but new holes in her body? The answer had eluded her, and yet, there she was. For all the wisdom she tried to project, she had a lot to learn about herself too.

She dared to take her eyes off the girl again, focusing on the door. Looking ahead, even. Her knit brow told that she'd forgotten something, a moment before she continued:

"...If not for yourself, then imagine this. Thirty years down the line, Kaguya Kazuko has played the part of a bloodthirsty demon to perfection." She settled her gaze on Kazuko's own. "Enough so that the next generation has a living, breathing example of the village's whispers. An impression, in living memory, to be forced on the next child. She, too, will decide that hurting herself first is better than risking waiting to be hurt." An odd example, perhaps, but the little Senju was often told to think ahead. Just as her ancestors had paved the path of prestige for her, she was made to remember that her actions would reach well beyond her lifetime – if all went to plan.

Hibiki didn't bother to move. Whether the girl would answer, storm off, slice her up, or focus on the mission... She'd said her piece. If Kazuko was smart, it would plant a seed, and maybe even make a better person at the end of it. If not, then it was a doomed endeavour from the start... But at least she could say she'd tried.
Nola
*Once the man left, Kazuko turned around to face Hibiki fully again. She awaited another calm and collected response to her stuff, something that would probably anger her even more, something 'wise' and whatever. It was a Senju, they all talked like they knew everything, right? The other one seemed to try to apologize..? She blinked, watching the other one, in anger and curiosity. What did she have to tell her? Seems like another speech.

She listened to it, all of it, without doing anything to her. It was as if she at least had enough control over her unending rage to keep listening, which was a fascinating thing. Some people are much less angry and refuse to listen to the other person, but Kazuko had the ability to keep listening despite being filled to the top with anger, basically drowning in it. Yes, drowning... This kind of describes it well. Her eyes did not even leave the other's for a second, and when Hibiki said that the two are not much more different, the Kaguya was confused. Taken aback, or so.

The more she talked, the more the gears in her head moved and worked, making it pretty confusing to follow with all the stuff going on in her head. So she was saying... That the two were the same, that Kazuko is scared to be herself and that she was a bad example for other people, more specifically for the future generations? That is what she understood. Hibiki became silent again, and Kazuko?

The Kaguya took a step closer to her, standing right in front of her again. Was it going to escalate now? Did she finally hear enough to resort to violence, just as she would love to? Would they have to fight each other on the open streets now? Kazuko's face, especially her eyes, showed that typical bloodthirst and anger of her clan, though her body did not reflect that in that sense. It was as if she just wanted to stare. Even her right hand, the one holding the naginata, moved up a little bit, which now could be interpreted as a preparation for an attack.*

*But no. It was almost as if her hand tried to do its own thing, because Kazuko forced it down again. Instead, she opened her mouth to speak.* "I am not scared." *Was it a lie? Was it the truth? Probably both, if you knew her.* "I like the way I am. You don't understand." *Her voice was still filled with the same emotions as before, but it sounded a bit calmer. Strange.* "The very few friends I have accept it. And they are by far not like me." *Which was true. The two friends she had were pretty much the opposite of her in some regard. 

Despite all these things though, she seemed to have changed at that very moment.* "You're trying to be as perfect as your clan wants you to be, don't you?" *Kazuko continued.* "You want to be the way people expect you to be. Solve problems for the sake of the village." *She raised her chin.* "Even if it costs your life." *That is how she thought of the other girl. Suddenly, she started to growl and rammed the spear on the ground, finally looking away from the other. The view was really one of a beast, as she just tried to do some stuff to let out her anger inside her. The growl was deep and long, and it was as if she used anything around her as a stress relieving punching bag. Except Hibiki.* "I hate you." *Kazuko looked at her again.* "Though I like the way you resist." *Wait... It almost seemed like she changed there a bit. Did she find this amusing?* "Even though you were so scared. I could almost smell it." *The Kaguya leaned in closer to the other's face, knowing fully well that the fidgeting and the lack of breathing for that moment meant that she was more than a little 'excited'. The very small smirk she had just resembled the demonic way of her personality.*
Michael
A raise of the weapon, as slight as it was, had Hibiki fearing the worst. Another outburst, or the fight she'd hoped to avoid, with all the bloodshed that entailed. Perhaps she needed to give Kazuko a little more credit than that. She insisted that she wasn't scared. Nothing in Hibiki's expression told that she was convinced. If anything, the lack of change said that she wasn't. "You misunderstand. While it's good to hear that you have friends... I never said they have to be like you to get along with you. If anything, I think that two of you would end..." A twitch of a frown ended the sentence.

Even as the girl attempted to prod at her, she refused to show fear, or surprise, or displeasure... Mostly because there wasn't much of the latter two to be found. "This is not much of a secret. My parents, and their parents, and so on, all the way up to The Wanderer himself. All of them have given part of their lives to helping our home prosper. Ours is a burden that we bear with pride, and what gives us our continued status." Well-rehearsed words were spoken without missing a beat. "To that end, I strive to be the best shinobi I can be. It helps my family, the village, and the frontier beyond. If you expect me to be ashamed of that, then I'm sorry to say that won't happen."

Then came the growling and the glaring, and a reversion to the girl that had first walked into the room. Kazuko managed to make her expression shift; disappointment made itself very clear. She met the declaration of hatred without missing a beat. "And I pity you."

As much as she thought she'd masked her concerns, Kazuko had found a weakness, and was eager to press the attack. There, Hibiki revealed one of her 'strengths' – a near-permanently subdued expression made most matters easier to mask. That was how she continued to hide her concerns, and in this case, show a slight smile instead. "I would've thought we'd moved past the scare tactics, now that we know so much about each other." A deliberate avoidance of admission, she hoped, would keep the girl off her scent. "I get the message, though. You don't want to be pushed, and to be honest, I don't have much else to say. We do, however, have a mission to report on." 

She gestured to the door, waiting for the girl closer to it to take the lead. It definitely had nothing to do with keeping her in her vision.