Dosu had used a substitution jutsu just before Gaara managed to kill him. It was only then that he realized that his life was in danger, that Gaara was more dangerous than he'd calculated. He didn't want to admit it, but he was scared. He'd barely escaped Gaara, and killing Sasuke was out of the question. Gaara had managed to break his arm and the resonating echo speaker attached to it. And with all of that, who knew what Orochimaru had planned for him.
So he hid. He laid low in konoha's forests, making a poorly fashioned splint for his arm.
Dosu had always been cautious, logical. One had to be in his condition. His twisted, bent spine gave him an awkward gait at the best of times, and at the worst gave him unbearable back pain. So he honed his mind, training his body at the minimum for being a shinobi. His mother had left him to die as a toddler, and Orochimaru had taught him that the world was a cruel place, and if you wanted to survive you'd have to be smart, hunchback or not.
After a little while, when things seemed to calm down, he snuck out to see if he could gather intelligence on the whereabouts of his friends. He was banking on Kin's intelligence keeping them alive. She would keep Zaku from doing anything too stupid.
He sat in a tree outside the hokage's office, hoping that once everyone was gone he could break in and do some digging.
"-you sure they didn't have anyone? There's no one we should contact about their deaths?" A silver-haired ninja asked a brown-haired nin with a scar over his nose.
The scarred shinobi shook his head. "Their emergency contact forms were blank. It seems Orochimaru took them in for the sole purpose of this plot." He looked down. "They aren't even going to be able to be buried together. We still haven't found Dosu Kinuta."
Dosu swallowed the lump in his throat. He should have realized this was going to happen. But he had clung to that childish hope in order to keep himself going. He realized the two nins were talking again.
"How could he sacrifice children like that? Take advantage of someone who was vulnerable, then turn them into a tool to just get cast aside?" The brown-haired nin said, gripping the papers. He looked the way Dosu felt inside. Grieving, angry.
"Someone who has lost his humanity, I guess. I try not to think about that too much. Do you want to go to the morgue? Mourn for them?" The masked nin said, holding the scarred nin's hand. The scarred nin nodded, and Dosu hopped out of the tree, intending to follow them. He waited outside the entrance to the building. The two shinobi came out, hand in hand.
Dosu, although confused at their affection, followed silently behind them.
When they got to the morgue, he waited until they were gone before attempting to go inside. It was locked, but he managed to pick it by listening to the lock and using a salvaged piece of metal from the broken echo speaker.
When he got inside he didn't have to look hard to find them. They hadn't even been put into one of the drawers. They were still laying on the table, their eyes still open.
Dosu's breath shook as he went to them, his vision blurred.
"I'm sorry." He whispered, trying to hold down his sob that threatened to rip his chest apart. "I abandoned you. You were my friends, all I've ever had. I left you to die, because I was scared. That sand shinobi...He almost killed me, he broke my arm. It still hurts. My echo speaker is completely broken, and I can fix it, but..." He looked down. "I don't even know how you both died."
"They died as tools for Orochimaru's cause. The same way you would have if you hadn't been hiding."
Dosu turned. It was the masked nin.
"I remember you from the chuunin exams. You showed a lot of potential. Then again, so did these two. Potential that Orochimaru would have blatantly wasted."
"Who are you?"
"A friend. My name is Kakashi Hatake."
Dosu tilted his head. "My friends are dead. The last time someone helped me out, it ended with me becoming a tool."
Kakashi shook his head. "I don't expect you to give me loyalty or worship me. And I certainly make no plans to use you as a human sacrifice in a resurrection jutsu."
Dosu tried to will his eyes to stop blurring with tears. "So that's how it happened." He spoke softly, looking at them. "I don't have much choice, do I? My friends are gone. Everything worth fighting for is gone."
Kakashi shook his head. "Not necessarily. I can make a new life for you here."
Dosu tilted his head more. "I am a shinobi of the village hidden in the Sound. Even if it is a front for Orochimaru, it was my home. The one place I felt I belonged, where I didn't feel like a freak. I want to go back someday."
Kakashi nodded. "I understand. But that isn't an option right now."
"Obviously. I'm not stupid."
"I never said that. And I can help you train. Even if I know nothing of your sound techniques, I can help with chakra control and teach you a bit of what I know. I also think you'll be great at working behind the scenes, so I'll have you go on missions, of course. You'll just have...an unconventional experience as your life as a shinobi."
"Since when is anything having to do with being a shinobi conventional?" Dosu said with a snort.
Kakashi shrugged. "You in or out?"
"I'm in. Just let me say goodbye to them. Please."
Kakashi gave Dosu a sympathetic look, then nodded. "I'll wait outside." He left.
Dosu turned to his friends. "I...I don't really know what to say. I just know that even though we all put up this front that we don't care about each other, I..." He breathed hard and looked. "I'm going to miss you both. A lot. I'm going to miss Kin freaking out about her hair and yelling at us about training and I'm going to miss Zaku jumping into situations like a total moron and I'm going to miss how you guys didn't care how I looked or walked or stood. You just saw me as a friend, a teammate. As a fellow shinobi." Dosu found his breath becoming wet and ragged, his nose running. His bandages were getting wet. He couldn't breath, couldn't talk. He could only feel how unfair the universe was. He could only feel the gaping hole within him at the loss of everything he had ever known.
Kakashi came running in.
"What are you doing? I told you to let me say goodbye!" Dosu shouted hoarsely.
"I heard you screaming. It was more like wailing, but..."
Dosu fell to his knees, sobbing silently. Kakashi sighed and went to him.
"Iruka is a lot better at this sort of thing." He kneeled down and hugged Dosu. Dosu wanted to push him away, tell him to leave him alone. But he just couldn't.
"My fault..." He sobbed.
"It wasn't your fault. It was out of your control. The fact that you survived is amazing." He looked at Dosu. "My teammates died on a mission, and I spent years blaming myself for what happened. But the thing is, blaming yourself doesn't solve anything. It just wastes the sacrifice they made. Honor your friends by showing Orochimaru, by showing the world, that you are more than just a tool."
Dosu pulled back, then stood. He went to his friends, looking at them for one last time. He reached out.
He shut Kin's eyes.
He shut Zaku's eyes.
He turned to Kakashi. "Alright. I'm ready."