Naruto had long since lived in silence. There was no one there to fill it up for him. So, Naruto did it himself with his endless chatter. He could talk for hours into the silence of his apartment, filling it up. Naruto always had to fill things up. His apartment was full of junk, books and scrolls scattered around the floor, empty ramen cups in the kitchen. Naruto's house was a mess. But even full of things, it was still silent. So Naruto talked. He talked to himself, wore bright, loud, orange clothes that seemingly spoke for themselves. Naruto was loud to cover the silence. To cover up the loneliness inside.
But, Naruto wasn't quite so alone anymore, and he was slowly learning to appreciate silence. The moments of quiet as he sat next to the only man who had ever been anything close to a parent to him, eating ramen in his apartment, or in Iruka's modest house. The tense, nerve-jangling silence of a covert mission with his team, with the only method of communication the hand signals the three teens had created themselves. A quiet game of Shoigi with Shikamaru, which he always lost, or just lying on the grass, watching the clouds. Or walking home next to Sasuke after training or a mission, a comradely silence filling the night air between them. It was comfortable silence. The kind that didn't feel empty, the kind that was filled up, even if it wasn't with noise. And Naruto had never been able to fill up his silence quite like that before.
And so, Naruto thought, sitting with his team at dinner one night, for once not saying a word, silence isn't so bad really.
Then he smiled so broadly Sasuke called him an idiot, Sakura smacked his head and told him he looked stupid, and Kakashi merely gave him a smile.
"What are you smiling about anyways, baka?" Sakura asked.
"Nothing, just enjoying silence." He said, smiling even broader at her confusion.
'Because silence is fine, as long as there's someone there to listen to it with me.'