Sabo, who was outside the door, heard Ace's voice, a mix of crying and laughing, and couldn't help but sigh, muttering, "What a fool."
Then Sabo frowned and mumbled again, "But his ability to withstand blows is too poor; his butt is really hard."
He subconsciously looked at his palm, and Orochimaru's figure suddenly flashed through his mind.
However, he immediately drove that thought out of his mind. What was he thinking? His brother! His brother! If he dared to hit him, Orochimaru would dare to kill him.
On the other side, Orochimaru and Marco were preparing to perform surgery on Whitebeard. After all, organs had to be replaced one by one, and time was needed for adaptation. Dividing it over a month was perfectly suitable.
Unknowingly, Orochimaru had been on Whitebeard's ship for almost half a year (time fast-forwarded).
But most of the time was spent sailing on the sea, which was extremely boring. Not to mention Ace was going crazy seeing Orochimaru, Orochimaru was also tired of seeing Sabo.
And this was even with Orochimaru spending most of his time holed up in the laboratory. Besides Ace and Sabo, Orochimaru barely interacted with anyone from the Whitebeard Pirates.
After all, researchers don't need to socialize.
The surgery was quickly successful. With the added boost of the Phoenix's ability, Orochimaru saved a lot of effort. Orochimaru looked at Marco's expression with a subtle gaze... Should he... secretly take some human tissue?
Marco, who was helping Whitebeard recover from his wounds, couldn't help but sneeze. It was indeed because he had been using his ability too frequently lately, and his immunity had dropped.
Now Whitebeard's body was getting younger and younger, even golden hair was starting to grow from his roots. It was just that his gaze towards Orochimaru was becoming more and more loving, as if he wanted to hold him in his palm.
The Whitebeard Pirates held banquets every day for various reasons, such as celebrating their Pops' new hair or the half-year anniversary of Thatch's resurrection.
Whitebeard was so angry every day that he wanted to kill those guys, because he had to abstain from alcohol! In the past, these boys would still fear him, but now with Orochimaru around, they had been openly mocking Whitebeard for over half a year.
As the day of Orochimaru's departure drew nearer, Izo looked at Orochimaru beside Pops and couldn't help but walk over, scratching his head, his expression conflicted.
Orochimaru, who was being fed by Sabo, turned his head, looked at the hesitant Izo, and said, "It's okay. No, it's fake."
Izo was stunned. He hadn't even spoken yet, so why did he answer so quickly?
Ace saw Izo's dazed look and couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Izo, the expression on your face is too obvious.
Orochimaru means that he has no relation to Kaido, he is not from Wano Country, and the Marine's intelligence is false."
"But..." Izo's brows were still tightly furrowed. Orochimaru was clearly from Wano Country, and they had all noticed Orochimaru deliberately avoiding him.
Whitebeard laughed, "My son... it doesn't matter where Orochimaru is from. It's enough that the person you see before you is real.
However, Orochimaru, do you really not want to call me Pops?"
Orochimaru turned his head away, ignoring Whitebeard, and instead looked out at the sea, lost in thought.
Ace saw Orochimaru's indifferent attitude towards Pops and felt a pang of sympathy for Whitebeard.
"Orochimaru... Pops is so good, why don't you just call him that? Just pity a lonely old man."
Upon hearing this, everyone in the Whitebeard Pirates burst into tears of laughter. "A lonely old man? Pops, look, you have to pretend to be a lonely old man to adopt a son."
Whitebeard's eye twitched, and he raised his hand and punched Ace.
"What nonsense are you talking about!"
Ace covered the bump on his head aggrievedly and mumbled softly, "Pops, you're so biased. It's clearly Orochimaru who's ignoring you. And Orochimaru too, even if you don't call him Pops, it doesn't change the fact that Pops is your uncle."
Although Ace's mumbling was very soft, the Observation Haki of the rejuvenated Whitebeard was powerful. He frowned.
"Ace, what are you saying? What uncle?"
Ace was stunned for a moment, then realized he had said something he shouldn't have. He looked at Orochimaru, appearing somewhat flustered.
"Orochimaru... I... I didn't mean to..."
Orochimaru, who was lying on Sabo, turned his head and gave Ace a look.
"Why are you so guilty? I just don't like it, I never denied it. Not saying anything is just to avoid trouble, especially since they're so annoying."
Orochimaru gestured with his chin towards Izo. Just the childhood memories of that so-called Denjiro in his mind were enough to annoy him; he didn't want another one.
"I said I'm not from Wano Country because I'm really not." (He's from the Naruto World.)
Of course, Sabo and Ace automatically interpreted it as him saying that because the people of Wano Country didn't acknowledge Orochimaru's existence.
Whitebeard looked at Ace's expression and understood that things weren't that simple, but if Orochimaru didn't want to talk about it, he wouldn't press the issue.
Seeing everyone's attention focused on the two people talking, Whitebeard quietly stretched out two fingers, intending to snatch a jar of wine.
Orochimaru didn't even need to look. A shuriken instantly flew out, directly shattering the jar.
"No drinking. There's still a month left. One sip and another month will be added."
Whitebeard looked at the broken jar of wine with a broken heart.
Everyone's gaze once again focused on Whitebeard, who had been caught stealing wine, and a burst of laughter erupted.
"Hahahaha... Pops got caught again, he really doesn't learn."
Izo looked at Ace irritably, wondering what kind of secret code these two brothers were speaking.
"Does it concern me?" Izo asked.
"Yes... but not much." Ace looked at Orochimaru, and seeing that Orochimaru truly didn't care, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Pops... Izo... you should both be able to sense it, right? I don't like Kozuki Oden, so every time you mention him, I leave.
Because our stances are different. To be precise, none of us four brothers have a good impression of Kozuki Oden..."
"But Lord Oden..." Izo's emotions were a bit agitated.
"Stop! I know what you want to say. To you, Kozuki Oden is a Companion, but to us, he is an irresponsible person."
Whitebeard unhappily punched Ace again, "What's yours and mine? You're all my sons, stop dawdling, say what you have to say quickly."
Ace glared at Orochimaru, who looked bewildered. In the end, Orochimaru spoke; he didn't want Ace to concoct a year-long melodramatic play for him.
"From a scientific perspective, it was Kozuki Oden's sperm that genetically gave me life."
(Of course, Orochimaru thought the system was extremely unscientific.)
Izo and the others looked bewildered, and even Whitebeard hadn't reacted, all looking at Marco at the same time.
Marco was startled by the news, and finally, surrounded by a group of gazes, he reacted... These people didn't understand? His mouth twitched.
"Orochimaru means that Kozuki Oden is his father."
"Oh..." A group of people nodded in understanding.
"What????" After realizing, they looked at Orochimaru in shock. Most of the people on Whitebeard's ship knew Kozuki Oden.
Izo was even more dizzy from the shock of this news.
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