"Can he really only stay for an hour?"
Watching Hawking vanish without a trace, Sakura could not help but sigh.
"Hawking... he seems like such a gentle, kind person."
They had only spent an hour together, yet Hawking had left her with a very good impression.
It was not just because he was generous and had a way of speaking that put people at ease, though that was certainly part of it.
More than that, it was a feeling—a feeling unlike anything in their world.
Throughout the shinobi world, Konoha was already considered one of the most peaceful and prosperous places, yet plenty of darkness still lurked beneath its surface.
Leaving aside everything they had experienced over the years, they had already felt it deeply during the Chunin Exams.
Once you became a ninja, you would experience such things to some extent.
Other than someone as thick-skinned as Naruto, it was hard for anyone to keep their heart pure forever. Most ninjas had some psychological issues, and even she was no exception.
Yet Hawking gave her a very unusual feeling. It was not that he was completely untainted; it was simply a feeling she could not quite put into words.
If Hawking had known what Sakura was feeling at that moment, he would have understood what she was trying to say.
Was Hawking a good person? Not exactly. But he was a normal person who had grown up in a truly peaceful era.
Perhaps his upbringing had not been perfect, and he had lacked familial love, but he had still grown up healthy.
Unlike Sakura and the other ninjas, he had not started taking missions at the age of eleven or twelve, carrying out all kinds of killings, getting his hands covered in blood, and watching friends, companions, and even