Sakura Ganbaru!

Street Fighter: Sakura Ganbaru!  (さくら がんばる! Sakura Ganbaru!, "Sakura Gives it Her Best!")  is a manga  series written and illustrated by Masahiko Nakahira . The story follows  Sakura Kasugano in her quest to become a street fighter and meet  Ryu.

Plot
The story starts by introducing Sakura an average japanese schoolgirl with the passion of street fighting. She is more or less coached by Dan Hibiki in some simple street fighting techniques.

Later a street thug stole her brother's video game which he borrowed from a friend. Unstatisfied with the situation she seek out the thug and had her first street fighting match with him which she won with a single Hadoken.

Dan Hibiki wishing to polish her talent took around to street fight on the streets which she gradually grew to love street fighting even more. Karin Kanzuki a seasoned and profeesional street fighter that was the same age as Sakura saw her street fighting and was intrigued. She arranged a meeting to meet up with her in the school which they coincidently went together and challenged her to a street fighting match. Karin who was undefeated was over confident and eventually lost to her eventhough she had a great start in the fight.

Later Sakura is seen counting money which she had won from previous fights was reluctant to accept them but was persuaded earlier by Dan Hibiki to keep them anyways. She wanted to street fight for the passion and the experience but never for the money. Suddenly Karin abruptly came crashing through her window and challenged her to a street fighting competition which she had organized. Before leaving in a helicopter she promised to pay for the damages of the window.

The next day Sakura was reluctant to join the tournament and wanted to go to school. Suddenly she saw Dan Hibiki on the streets already beaten one of the tournament's contenders. The fallen contender's brother was feeling sad his brother was eliminated on the first stage and wanted to release his anger onto a inocent unsuspecting victim which so happens to be Sakura. Without warning he punched Sakura but was shocked when Sakura retaliates and defeated him in mere seconds. After that incident she was looking forward to join the tournament eventhough it means skipping school.

While she was fighting other oponents Dan was defeated by an unsuspecting participant that was Ken, an all american street fighting champion. Ken later encountered Karin and also defeated her easily but commented that if he was caught off guard she might have dislocated his joints. In the end only 2 participants remain which was Sakura and Ken. While they were fighting vigorously Sakura's father saw this and was shocked that his daughter was involved in such activities. Both put up a great fight but in the end it was Ken who won by a knockout.

Sakura wakes up initially feeling sad that she lost because she could not ask Ken where Ryu was. Later she found Ken, Karin and Dan in her living room having breakfast. Karin distributed the street fighting tournament trophies to both of them as the 2nd and 1st place. Before Ken leaves he told her brother about Ryu which he indirectly told her sister. Ken was later seen in a car with quite serious wounds such as broken ribs. Dan was in the car with him commenting how his ego made him push on fighting last night eventhough he was hurt that badly by Sakura.

After the street fighting tournament Karin's father was dissapointed in her for losing 2 street fights. He gives her a series of test to determine whether she was still fit to be his heir. The first test requires Karin to cross over a rope over a deep pit. She was attacked by a bird but casually kicks it away commenting it was nothing compared to fighting with Sakura. The second challenge required her to pass through a waterfall which a bear suddenly ambused her and manages to scratch her beautiful face. Nonetheless she defeated the bear with a single punch commenting that it was nothing compared to Ken's powerful fists. In the last challenge she was supposed to fight a Lion but it was apparently tamed because Karin was the owner of the lion. She pets the lion like a domestic cat.

The next volume depicts Sakura boarding a plane to another country to find Ryu with Dan following her. Dan lead her to an illegal underground street fighting ring to search for the whereabouts of Ryu. The leader of the ring agreed to give him that information if he wins a street fight. While he was in the ring Sakura was knocked cold and kidnapped to be sold. At this time Balrog walked into the ring, he was a fierce american boxer who was banned from the boxing scene because of his unneccedsary violence. Sakura eventually broke free but found Dan hibiki defeated and his life threatened by the ring leader by pointing a gun at his head. His lady servant happened to be an undercover cop from interpol named Chun Li and revealed herself when she saw that lives were at stake. Together with Sakura they arrested all the criminals.

Chun Li interogates Dan and Sakura and learned that they were finding for Ryu. She decided to follow them because she worries about Sakura's safety. They later found a place where Ryu once trained. Sakura found a tree that was wrapped with thick rope used by Ryu to train and felt he was a good person for not harming the tree. Coicidently Cammy was persuing Gen, a highly skilled assasin. Chun Li being a police officeer felt responsible to bring Gen into custody and asked everyone else to stay back. Chun Li was easily defeated and was nearly killed. Sakura decided to fight Gen eventhough she knew how dangerous he was. Gen dodged every attack Sakura made effortlessly. He was intrigued by Sakura's fighting spirit and this caused him to lose focus for a second allowing Sakura to land a sucessful punch. Gen finally got serious and went for the killing blow but one the very last split second decided to knock her out cold instead. Cammy pointed a gun at Gen and asked him why he spared Sakura's life when he was never hesitant to kill anybody before this. He said that he nolonger hold the intent to kill and walked away.

Sakura was later found in bed with the others beside her. They later found news that Zangief knew where Ryu was. Cammy decided to follow. They arrive in Russia and found Zangief in a cage wrestling match. Sakura and Karin teamed up to fight him and in the end no winner was decided. Zangief commented that Sakura's fighting style reminded him of Ryu very much and told her to find the answers she seek in thailand where he believes Sagat know where Ryu was. Chun Li and Cammy decided it was time to go and left Dan and Sakura to find Sagat in Thailand.

Dan and Sakura arrives in Thailand and found Sagat in a temple. Sagat told Sakura where Ryu was and requested he was to be left alone. Dan which had unfinished buisness with Sagat decided to stay and fight him. Sakura knows how powerful Sagat was and feared for Dan's well being. Dan seriously told Sakura to leave without him saying it is his own personal matter. In tears knowing Dan at best would be seriously wounded she ran without turning back. The outcome of the fight was not known.

Sakura sat in a bus with Ken to the spot Sagat said Ryu was. Karin was monitoring the whole thing and was helping Sakura in some ways to reach her destination. Sakura impatiently ran to the site and found Ryu. She shed tears of joy finally finding him. In Ryu's confusion he asked if she was okay. Sakura told Ryu she was fine and challenged him to a fight. Ryu held back for a brief time but was surprised to learn that Sakura was stronger than expected. They both gave it their all and fought for hours. Before they promised to see each other again in the future and Sakura took a picture of him.

Years later Sakura works as a school gym class teacher. One day Ryu and Ken visited her at the school and fulfilled the promise they made years ago. The story ends with them engaging in a street fight with an unknown outcome.