Minato has such a high opinion of Shinji, haha. It might just be an elementary schooler thing, but being called out on all of his bs is just so refreshing for Minato, so he appreciates so much that Shinji will absolutely speak his mind and unabashedly tell him when he's wrong or being stupid. At the start, there was some humoring Shinji because of his age, and some teasing even now, but honesty is something Minato treasures a lot, so he feels like he can always count on Shinji to let him know when he's upset about something or if Minato is acting against social convention. He asks a lot of advice from Shinji, like the makings of a protagonist or how to get along with people, and isn't as afraid or ashamed to ask this from him as he would other people, because Shinji seems to like stating his opinions and showing off his expertise. Shinji is a lot of things that Minato admires in people- confident, charismatic, talkative- so that puts them at levels closer to equals instead of talking down to him as a child, which sometimes Minato forgets that he is, hence death jokes and the repeated appreciation that Shinji tells him to cut it out.
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