There are three version of the story, one is the canon version which can be found byClicking Here and another uou can find in the misc and click on ryu final, but here's what I heard and from my own knowledge:
Ryu used to be an orphan, until a man named Gouken saw how much potential he had, so he took him in his care and trained him to learn Shotokan way of fighting. He learned learned the art of Shotokan Karate with Ken(his best friend), Retsu and Dan, who got kicked out cause he wanted to learn the killing part of Shotokan and Gouken also saw how much revenge he had in his eyes(so bye-bye Dan). Ryu focus more on perfection of his moves and in becoming a true warrior, Ken in the hand went for style other perfection(he was sent to live with Ryu and Gouken, cause his father hopped to discipline when he sent him there, so he wasn�t really into it at the start.)
Soon, around the age of 22-23yrs old, he and Ken enter in a tournament hosted by the Street fighter champ(at the time), Sagat(�King of Street Fighters�). Ryu defeated all his challengers, and soon it was Ryu v.s. Ken, the fight was close, but at the end Ryu came up winner(barely). Then he was in the final round/battle against the boss/host of the tournament: the Muay Thai master himself Sagat. The fight lasted long it was like �punch for a punch , kick for a kick�, but Ryu narrowly won the battle against Sagat by delivering a strong and powerful Shoryuken(Raising Dragon Punch), it made a huge scar in Sagat chest(this showed how much untapped powers of Ryu and how much potential he has).
As Ryu and Ken returned home from the tournament they saw Akuma with the dead body of their master in his hand and being tossed down a waterfall, the two tried to stop him, but Akuma tossed the two like nothing(he ignore them b/c at the time the two wasn�t as strong as they are now).*For some reason nobody seen the body of Gouken after what happened, it is said that he is recovering from the battle and would return one day when the time is right.
Soon after this Ryu and Ken went their seperate ways. Ryu went on finding new warriors/fighters to fight and in search of Gouken murder, Ken went back to America and became Martial art champion in the U.S. and became rich and famous from advertising and fighting in tournaments(his parents were also rich too, so he just got more richer). And also Ken was bored from winning all the time in the U.S. so went on the search for Ryu to challenge him once more and to prove that he was the better of the two(yeah right, lol). Else where, Sagat, dishonored and a shame, he was bent on revenge on Ryu and wanted to kill him b/c of it. Soon he(Sagat) met a man named M.Bison(aka Vega in Japan*if you wanna know why they changed the name around in Japan, mail me or post in my message board) asked if Sagat wanted revenge on Ryu, and so he offered Sagat to join the Shadowlaw(or Shadoloo, which ever,lol), and he(Bison) promise that he(Sagat) would have his revenge on Ryu, and so he accepted his offer. Bison on the other hand, his true intention was to capture Ryu for himself and make him his mindless slave to fight on his side and be his personal killer(or in the Sfa3, it said that Bison needed a new body and needed a strong and powerful one that can hold his power so he wanted Ryu's) . And somewhere else again, Sakura(a girl in high school who loved to fight) was also in search of Ryu as well, but not to fight him(well kind of) but to meet him in person, because she was a major fan of his fighting style.(ain�t Ryu popular? )
Sometime around the SfA series(guessing Sfa2) he faced Akuma, a weaken Akuma(he fought Gen just before he faced Ryu), they fought but Ryu beat him, and the weaken Akuma warned him of the �evil intent� that is in him as well as in himself, after his words....Akuma destoried the whole island with a hit. Ryu was puzzled by what he said to him. And after this, not too long later, Ken met up with Ryu, and he challenge him. And they fought, but this time Ken won by kicking him in the head or caught him off guard, but Ken did not take pride in the wining b/c he knew that Ryu was troubled at the time(with Sagat bent on revenge on him and Akuma words) and he knew that Ryu did not fight with all he had, and so he gave Ryu his bandana thingy(lol) to cover up the cut form Ken�s kick and to remind him to focus in the fight, as well as a reminder that Ken beaten him on that day. And if this wasn�t enough Ryu met up with Rose warns him of Bison(but at the time Ryu did not know who she was talking about at all). Ryu enter the second street fighter tournament, which was hosted by Bison,*ok to make a long story short in the sf2 tournament, I�m gonna take some shortcut in Sf2 part*, Ryu vs. Fei Long = Ryu, Ryu vs. Dhalsim = Ryu(he defeated him with the dragon punch), Ryu vs. Balrog= �it�s a bird, it�s plane, it�s it�s ... Barlog fling across the sky cause Ryu kicked his ass�. Soon he faced Bison in a final battle, Ryu vs. Bison. Ryu gave it his all, fight for life and barley won, but Bison did not give up so easily , Bison shot one last Psycho shot which hit Ryu, the evil of the shot was going into Ryu�s body, Ryu could feel the evil starting to take over him, but then he thought of his friends and rivals, then he was free from the Psycho blast that Bison shot at him, and he finished Bison off with a Dragon Punch. *This was based on SFA3 ending and other sources*. After everything ,almost got killed from the battle Ryu again went on a search for more challenge in fighting.
Time past since the second tournament ended, Ryu and Ken�s friendship was turning cold, since Ken got married and became a family man, Eliza(Ken�s wife) said that he can enter any tournament at long as Ryu is in it, when he heard that Ryu enter in third sf contest, he as well entered in it.*Ok there are version to this story 1. Alex won the tournament(most likely him since he�s the main character in Sf3), 2.Ken won the tournament(so say the comic books in Asia), and 3. Ryu won the tournament by defeating him with the Shin Shoryuken, so I�ll let you all to figure that part out till capcom makes it offical.The following in red MAYBE TRUE but also MAYBE NOT!!
Ryu somehow made it to the final round of the tournament.... Ryu vs. Gill. It seemed as if Gill had the upper hand*which he had*, beating Ryu to a near death!Ryu would not give up, then......as Gill was about to send the final strike to kill Ryu....Ryu released his powerful Shin Shoryuken,and Won!Gill was confronted with Ibuki and Dudley. Ibuki got her files, Dudley got his father's car back, Gill had no choice but to give them up due to the fact he was badley injuried/beaten....then all of a sudden Akuma came to finish Gill off with his Ragging Demon....Gill was killed....as soon as Akuma left......Gill Resurrected.
And well nothing really important happen in the second part of the toutnament..except Alex beat Gill.
I know one(or two) thing for sure, after Gill was defeated, Alex challenge Ryu to a fight, and Alex got his butt kicked many times, in fact Alex is still looking for Ryu for a rematch(s)(this is from Sf3 third strike, Alex's ending). Also after the Sf3 tournament Ryu wonders to himself if the path he is going(to find out what makes a true warrior), but then realize that he was(going the right path), when he close his eyes and thought about it and a leaf fell and all of a sudden he heard the leaf fall slowly, with his eyes still shut he grabbed the leaf and then open up his eyes and realize that he is going on the right path , he said(something like this)�at long as a furious battle still excite me and that I can still move at least one finger, I will keep fighting� . And so Ryu is still on his search once more searching for better fighters to challenge .
