diff --git a/unsloth/tokenizer_utils.py b/unsloth/tokenizer_utils.py
index 9630a0f764..e8660916c5 100644
--- a/unsloth/tokenizer_utils.py
+++ b/unsloth/tokenizer_utils.py
@@ -184,6 +184,9 @@ def assert_same_tokenization(slow_tokenizer, fast_tokenizer):
 pass
 
 
+global sentencepiece_model_pb2
+sentencepiece_model_pb2 = None
+
 def fix_sentencepiece_tokenizer(
     old_tokenizer,
     new_tokenizer,
@@ -192,16 +195,19 @@ def fix_sentencepiece_tokenizer(
 ):
     # From https://github.com/google/sentencepiece/issues/121
     # We need to manually edit the sentencepiece tokenizer!
-    try:
-        import sentencepiece.sentencepiece_model_pb2 as sentencepiece_model_pb2
-    except:
-        if not os.path.exists(temporary_location):
-            os.system(f"git clone https://github.com/google/sentencepiece.git {temporary_location}")
-            os.system(f"cd {temporary_location}/src && protoc --python_out=. sentencepiece_model.proto")
-            shutil.rmtree(temporary_location)
+    global sentencepiece_model_pb2
+    if sentencepiece_model_pb2 is None:
+        try:
+            import sentencepiece.sentencepiece_model_pb2 as _sentencepiece_model_pb2
+            sentencepiece_model_pb2 = _sentencepiece_model_pb2
+        except:
+            if not os.path.exists(temporary_location):
+                os.system(f"git clone https://github.com/google/sentencepiece.git {temporary_location}")
+                os.system(f"cd {temporary_location}/src && protoc --python_out=. sentencepiece_model.proto")
+            pass
+            import sentencepiece.sentencepiece_model_pb2 as _sentencepiece_model_pb2
+            sentencepiece_model_pb2 = _sentencepiece_model_pb2
         pass
-        import sentencepiece.sentencepiece_model_pb2 as sentencepiece_model_pb2
-    pass
 
     if not os.path.exists(temporary_location):
         os.makedirs(temporary_location)