Genma gave a thoughtful sigh. "Well..." He looked down at his lap, then up at Kaito again, with his lips pursed in thought. He licked his teeth and chewed his lip and wished he had a senbon or a cigarette. That would make thinking easier. "I don't know," he said at last. "That's kind of a hard problem."

Whose opinions did Genma care about? Raidou's obviously. The Hokage's, Arakaki's, Amari-sensei's and Kazuma-sensei's, though neither of them were around to share their opinions any longer. What about when he'd been younger? His parents', Uncle's, Yumiko's... He'd cared a little about impressing his teachers, but it had been easy. He knew he was good, and he knew he'd impressed people. And as for peers, classmates, villagers, the men and women he dated now.... He never gave it a second thought.

"Maybe you could pretend? Like... fake it? Like on a mission? I once had a mission where I was supposed to infiltrate this office and steal some documents, so they got me into the mail room as a clerk. I had no idea what the fuck I was doing. But I faked it. After a while of faking it, I realized I could do it."