Chapter Four:

The time had come, his match was here. He walked down to the ground only to have his opponent forfeit the match, this was not how he expected things to go. He slumped back up to the balcony, he was fuming, now how was he going to prove himself to her.

A few matches later, now it was Sasuke and Gaara. Shino stood at the top of the balcony and watched as the match progressed. He noted something was wrong, a genjustu? He released it while keeping himself hidden just in case of an enemy attack. He was content in staying hidden until he heard a cry, he quickly moved to see, Sakura had her head buried under her arms as two ninja were attacking her, he was about to spring into action when Kakashi jumped to her rescue. Shino sighed as she was relieved from danger.

He crouched back down. Regaining his composure. His stared at her as Kakashi summoned a dog, he stared down, confused out of his mind at what was going on until he saw Sakura nod and crawl towards Naruto and Shikamaru. He watched carefully as she woke Naruto, he was nearly quiet it was shocking, considering he usually never stopped talking. She crawled over to Shikamaru and was about to wake him when the dog bit his ankle. Shikamaru yelped while sitting straight up.

"You released GenJustsu too you faker! Why were you pretending to be asleep?"

Sakura yelled, Shino just shook his head, he knew that Shikamaru was not one to be bothered with other people's problems. All of a sudden Sakura screamed,

"Behind you!"

But it was too late a ninja was about to strike Naruto, when Gui appeared out of nowhere smashing the ninja into the wall behind them, creating a hole in it. Kakashi also appeared and sent them off. Shino was secretly listening to Kakashi tell them what to do, they were supposed to find Sasuke and stop him. Gui questioned,

"Are they going to be alright?"

"They will be fine, Pakku will look after them."

Kakashi answered, and with that being said Shino vanished,

'This is my chance, to protect Sakura.'

Sakura was on the trail of Sasuke, and Shino was on her trail. He knew she was close. She had stopped in front of Sasuke who was nearly passed out as Naruto faced off against Gaara. She knew that he didn't have enough strength to move, she tried to start working on him. Gaara had begun transforming into his one tail form. Unbeknownst to Naruto he had his sights set on Sasuke. He charged at him, about to attack, until Sakura jumped in the way, kunai in hand. She knew that she wasn't going to be able to stop him but she couldn't just stand there and let him attack her teammate.

'Now's my chance.'

Thought Shino as he appeared in front of Sakura, releasing his bugs forcing Gaara back. Sakura was shocked to say the least, she looked up slightly as he turned around. Her face showed her confusion,

"How…"

Shino interrupted her, reaching over to her shoulder, picking up a tiny insect.

"When you left the arena I sent with you a beetle, a female beetle, she gives off an intoxicating sent, nothing which you could detect, but the male of the species can,"

As a beetle appeared from under his collar,

"And he would follow her anywhere…as I would you Sakura…"

As he held out his hand, she took it, he helped her stand. She blushed deeply, she had no idea that Shino felt this way for her. She couldn't help but smile at him. He smiled down at her, he was about to say something when Gaara went to attack, Sakura pushed Shino out of the way, with all her strength, he didn't go far, just far enough to get out of the way of Gaara's demon's fist. Gaara pinned Sakura to a tree, with all his strength. This wasn't good, nothing would ever go as planned when it came to Sakura.

He paired up with Naruto and they fought with everything they had to get Sakura back. Although Naruto had known that he and Sakura were never going to be in a relationship, and that was okay with him. She had shown him that there was one person who would do anything for him, Hinata. And once she opened his eyes to that he had seen Sakura in an entirely different light. She had grown so strong over the years, he finally found out about her past, she had let him in just a little. She had told him about how her parents were killed when she was younger and she was taken in by Rin (she hadn't passed away yet) which is the reason why Kakashi had taken her on as a student after Rin passed, he had promised her that he would take care of her.

Naruto had promised Kakashi that he would take care of her, and that was a promise he didn't take lightly. He had no idea that Shino had feelings in general, but hearing how he felt about Sakura made him want to allow Sakura to figure out her feelings for him, he knew that she hadn't had a man in her life ever besides Kakashi. He knew that she needed to have someone who she could come home to. And he would be damned if she never got that.

He and Shino fought Gaara with everything they had, both determined to release her from his clutches. However something that they didn't know was that Sakura was nearly destroying the sand master's thoughts. His mind was racing, he had never understood human relationships, but this was driving him insane. She had stood up to him, knowing full well that she was going to die. Then this guy comes in to protect her, telling her that he would follow her anywhere. But when he went to attack the guy she pushed him out of the way, jumping in front of the bullet for the second time for another guy.

Gaara was so confused, why was she trying to save everyone, she didn't seem really to care for Sasuke, actually quite the contrary she openly admitted that she didn't like him, yet she was still standing up for him. His mind was going crazy, he didn't know what to think. With his mind focused on the girl in front of him he was open for attack. Naruto had summoned his "master toad" and went on the attack, while Shino stayed with Sakura trying to get her out of Gaara's grasp. She groaned lightly as the grip tightened on her. Shino didn't know what to do. He was hyperventilating beyond belief.

"I'll save you Sakura…I promise…just hold on…"