New Kind of Vocabulary, a naruto fanfic

Disclaimer: Do not own. Am not making money.

(Written to help me with my vocabulary test tomorrow. I used 20 'intellectual' words, care to guess what they are?)

A New Kind of Vocabulary

Sasuke's secret vice had always been approbation, but he had an unfortunate habit of taking severe umbrage when the praise people gave him was unacceptable to his standards

As was the way with Naruto.

When Sasuke ignored the blonde's assertion they had unwillingly formed a coalition, he managed to elicit sullen faces from his 'friend' as well as a "You're such a jaded freak, asshole."

No, Naruto's praise of Sasuke was not nearly meritorious enough.

Time passed and the praise only got more elaborate. "Why are you so damn petulant?" Sasuke was weary of Naruto trying to earn some sort of prerogative with him.

And of course they both knew love was such a hackneyed term, so any innuendo Naruto might have made towards it was purely accidental.

And Sasuke was Sasuke and expostulating endlessly over every little thing was just the way he was. So when Sakura tried to intercede with him on behalf of the blonde idiot, Sasuke reacted the only way he knew how.

"Get the fuck away from me."

And sure, maybe Naruto and Sasuke's feelings were seen by others as only a weak simulation of what could be considered 'love'; but Sasuke knew that love was just a word, a lurid one at that, and words meant only the meaning you yourself gave them.

And yes, sometimes Sasuke felt like he was an overpowering flame that ate everything around it mercilessly, only being assuaged by the coldest of water; the harshest of words; the sharpest of pains.

Really, Sasuke couldn't deny the problem he had, which could only be described as decadence, for denial meant nothing to Sasuke. Why bother about something you really couldn't care less about?

So when Sakura was flying high above the acceptable level of unctuous, Sasuke just walked away. Because Sasuke was Sasuke and Sasuke just couldn't deal with fawning females spouting endless words that hurt in the most sensitive of places when he was trying his hardest to pretend that words meant nothing.

Sasuke, though, had a unique ability. He could put his feelings on hiatus until he was in a provincial enough mood to deal with frivolous thoughts of affection which were supposed to mean nothing.

Yet when Naruto said "I love you" and Sasuke turned away, it wasn't because Naruto was brutally transcending the mental walls put up in Sasuke's mind from years of scarring loneliness. And when tears dripped silently down Sasuke's face, it wasn't at all because he suddenly felt like someone had caught hold of the giant flame he was and soothed it so that his endless burns ached less.

It was because Sasuke was Sasuke and words were words and love just wasn't a word in his vocabulary.

All readers are cherished, reviewers are adored, flamers fended off with large sticks, and constructive criticizers worshiped on a daily basis.