After finding Ryu as an orphan when he was young, Master Gouken decided to take the young lad under his wing and train him in martial arts at his dojo. After being at the dojo a few years Ryu was joined by Ken Masters, they became best friends and training partners for life. Under the teachings of the well respected & feared martial arts teacher Master Gouken, Ryu trained alongside Ken for 10 years. When Gouken trained Ryu & Ken he removed the Killing aspects of Ansatsuken, he thought they were distasteful & dishonorable to the art. Instead, he trained Ryu & Ken in a non-lethal version designed for battle not death and an entirely different form of Ki gathering than that of which him and his brother was taught from Goutetsu. This enabled Ryu to develop a more stronger focused fighting spirit, coupled with a powerful fighting style to go with it. Ryu was very committed to Gouken's Ansatsuken battle style martial art blending honor, dedication and ability in his own unique fighting style, he seeks the path & true way of the warrior to untap his potential seeking out new opponents who can help him with this mission. Under Gouken's battle style & serenity of the dojo in the mountains, Ryu put all his time into his training being the first up at dawn & the last to leave the training grounds at the end of the day. Ryu was so focused & concentrated he mastered the fireball with great recovery. After Gouken's death, Ryu wanted revenge like Ken as well but decided they both needed to sharpen their skills before facing their master's brother in a fight. Ryu wasn't the person to take revenge on someone, but Gouken's death at the hands of Akuma only fueled it. Ryu felt the "evil intent" rise in him for the second time, the first was when he beat Sagat with the "Satsu No Hadou" dragon punch. Ryu continued to develop & sharpen his skills in Ansatsuken perfecting the true way of the warrior thru constant challenges he received since
scarring Sagat's chest with the dragon punch & taking the "King Of Fighters" title, everyone wanted to test his legendary fighting skills & Ryu gained more experience power & strength along the way.
A few years later in Bangkok Thailand, Ryu received a challenge from Adon 
the prized ex-student of Sagat (adon defeated sagat too)....They agreed to fight in a gravel pit, Ryu told Adon "I hope you'll be more of a challenge that what your master was" and before Ryu could say "are you ready", Adon hopped sideways snapping out low roundhouse kick. Adon pressed the advantage & Ryu walked right into a Jaguar Kick 
knocking him backwards. Adon moved in for the kill, but Ryu getting up from his painful crouch leapt forward into a hurricane kick 
. Ryu's chi blazed, lifting him up into Adon's body with incredible force sending Adon sprawling into gravel. Adon buried his feet into some gravel & sprayed Ryu with gravel to blind him and immediately jumped in and went into a low stance and did a Rising Jaguar knee attack 
before Ryu could block it. Adon saw Ryu trying to get back up from being knocked down and stunned and he immediately went into the Jaguar Tooth attack, Ryu watched Adon sail in the air towards him. Ryu's waited patiently until Adon was just about to hit him with the attack and did a SHORYUKEN 
, the attack hit Adon deep in his stomach knocking Adon back into the air. Adon came down with a crushing thud and immediately wasting no time jumped back to his feet with lightning speed and rushed Ryu with a sweep knocking him off his feet and grabbed his arm and threw Ryu to the other side of the ring. Ryu stumbled a bit getting back up and Adon jumped at him with a Jaguar kick and Ryu charged up red fireball and caught Adon with a "DENJIN-HADOKEN" 
, the electricity of the fireball stunned Adon instantly as he fell off his feet on the ring canvas. Adon's speed from being knocked down and getting back on his feet was taking its toll on Ryu as he was tiring trying to keep up his blocks from Adon's attacks, Adon rushed Ryu with multiple Jaguar Knee attacks, elbow strikes and hits to Ryu's stomach and this time it was Ryu who found himself lying on the ring canvas. Adon wasted no time and jumped in the air with a Jaguar Tooth attack to finish Ryu, Ryu saw this and he struggled to get to his feet due to the exhaustion and Adon was sailing his way very quickly. Ryu's lips curled and he was gathering chi energy & with a cry of "HADOKEN" !!
, let it streak forward in a blazing ball of crackling power. The fireball caught Adon right beneath his hands as he touched down, knocking him loose & dumping him into the gravel slope. Adon landed head & shoulders first and tumbled to the bottom of the pit, his back and shoulders scraped and bloody. As Adon started to get up, 40 pounds of gravel fell knocking him out cold. Ryu mastered his Ansatsuken techniques developing a new super move called the "SHIN-SHORYUKEN" 
, he goes back to the dojo where Ken is already there. They both excitedly tell each other of their new super combo moves, they both train & spare with one another with spirit & discipline, concentration & perfection. Harnessing their chi skills as effeciently as possible as if Gouken was standing right there next to them, meditating and focusing on the fight that they we're about to face. About 2 months of training, Ryu tells Ken "Let's Go Get Akuma"!!