Anger filled his veins as he thought over that battle against the newcomer, Sakyo who owned the Dark Knight Dragoon bey and it was a left rotating bey!

He had heard many things about the infamous left rotating bey from several years ago; the one that held the power from a star fragment, the bey that was a rival power to Pegasus, the bey that belonged to the World's Number 1 Blader, Ginga Higane.

How could that guy beat me? He wondered to himself, trying to figure it out, sure Sakyo was powerful but he had trained so hard, his own power was the same as Zero's, yet…

He beat me without any trouble at all… Like I was nothing more than an amateur.

Shinobu did the only thing he could think of and that was to train harder than he did before, keeping himself distant from the other's so he could just focus on this one thing.

Everyone had been surprised when it turned into a tie between Zero and Sakyo yet when Shinobu looked into those red eyes he had known… known that Sakyo had held back but had no idea why he would do so.

Hold back when battling Zero, he's up to something…. But what?

Shinobu kept concentrating on his training, yet his mind wandered back to Sakyo and the way he had looked at him back on the hill top.

Why did he look at me like that? He clearly had no idea who I was until… He pondered over this thought for a while, his bey patiently spinning around in the dish in a lazy circle when another bey entered the stadium and slammed into his causing him to look up and see that the man who was preoccupying his thoughts was standing before him, with a large grin on his face.

Shinobu let out a low growl; "What do you want?" He demanded to know as the Dark Knight Dragoon bey slammed into his Shinobi Salamander; "If you are after another rematch…"

Sakyo just looked at him, the smirk leaving his face; "You are interesting,"

Shinobu just looked at him in surprise; "Wha…?" His guard being down that the next slam his bey fell out of the dish; "Huh…"

"Like I said, you are interesting," The red haired blader walked slowly towards him, like one would with a weary cat, his body language neutral and showed no threat to him.

Not that it mattered; Shinobu was still wary about him, after all he was a strong blader and no one knew that much about him; "Why am I interesting? Why not Zero?" He was ignoring the fact that his heart was racing, that although he wanted to run and put some distance between them he also wanted to know what Sakyo thinking.

Why is he looking at me like that?

Sakyo wasn't far away from him now and he closed the distance between them; "Zero… Zero is just another Ginga Higane wouldn't you agree?"

Shinobu took a step back and glared at him; "Just because he got his bey from…"

"Yes yes, but you earned your Shinobi Salamander didn't you? You weren't just given it because of some high ranked blader," Sakyo told him simply with a shrug; "I liked that, the fact that you are training so hard to become stronger,"

"Any self-respecting blader would do the same thing," He replied and tried to move further back only to find himself bumping into a wall; Damn it!

"Really? How often do those friends of yours train? Without being told to?"

"…" He didn't reply, but he didn't feel any guilt, how could he? When he knew the other's trained only to beat other's rather than to make them be the best they can be as bladers.

"I rest my case," He came even closer, now only a mere breathe away from him and Shinobu wondered what he was doing.

Part of him was surprise when Sakyo cupped his cheeks and gently pulled him to for a kiss. For a moment Shinobu was stunned, not even kissing back, but then Sakyo's tongue asked for entrance into his mouth and for some reason he finally opened his mouth and let him in.

Closing his eyes he leaned into to the kiss as Sakyo explored his mouth and tried not to let a moan escape as one of Sakyo's hands moved to gently caress his hair.

"Shinobu!" A familiar voice yelled into the night and Shinobu sprung away from the red head who just slowly back away with a lazy grin, catching his bey into his hand and walked away.

"I will see you again, Shinobu," He said softly, disappearing into the shadows and leaving him alone for a moment until Zero came running in.

"Shinobu?" Zero looked at his friend who was bending down to pick up his bey; "Are you okay?" He frowned at how the dark blonde was looking, his cheeks were read and his forehead was covered in sweat; "I think you've been training to hard,"

"Yea, I'm just going to head home now," He told the other, pocketing his bey and walked away, glad that Zero didn't see him with Sakyo.

What if he… No, he didn't, Zero isn't that tactful, he would demand an explaination and then he'd probably go after Sakyo. He let out a breath as he came outside, letting the cool wind calm him down; Everything is fine, no one needs to know what happened in there. No one.

Had Shinobu known, he had been watched by none other than Tsubasa, who had decided to go out for a little walk around the park when he spotted the two bladers. He had expected them to battle but he never expected for Sakyo to kiss Shinobu never mind that Shinobu would kiss him back.

He decided that he wouldn't say a work to anyone, after all he had no idea what would happen between the two, if anything.

Maybe… He began to think and then pushed the thought away, deciding that if anything was to happen between the two they would figure something out; Back to my walk… Who knew there would be something that interesting in a peaceful stroll around the park? He mused to himself as he quietly walked away from the stadium.