Well I definitely started off as Naruto fan, proof of this is that my GF wanted to watch an anime, any anime that was popular at that point in time.... and I was tasked with a job of finding one for her - not because she trusts my judgment, but because I know my way around the net and where to find the material.
The search led me to Naruto, which from the summary sounded and looked like nothing that would really interest me.
So at the beginning I didn't even bother watching it with her - but at the same time always being in the same room, while she did.
And you know... you can't help but eavesdrop to things she was laughing at and this stubborn, loudmouthed kid was starting to raise my curiosity.
Before I knew it, I was standing there watching for 5, then next time 10 and then 15 minutes after that, and finally the whole darn thing.
So I've decided to do a quick catch-up, watching the first 30 or so episodes that I've missed ... and I immediately fell in love with the character, the setting, and the music, I REALLY loved the music.
In very first episode there's a dialog, one of his first dialogs with Iruka, while cleaning the paint from the Hokage mountain, when he asks why should he hurry, it's not as if there is anyone waiting for him at home. To this day still, strikes a chord with me.
As for NaruSaku, I kind of followed Naruto's lead with his desires and dreams, didn't think much of it at first, but was cheering for the guy to win the girl (Sakura) over and become Hokage.
While we were slowly approaching the last episode, I kind of assumed that is all there was to it, so I've googled a bit as to where and who did Naruto end up with - only to find out there is part 2 already like in it's 150th episode. We both assumed the thing would run about the same amount of episodes as part1, so we've decided to wait for the story to wrap up, before jumping into it again..
But as months turned into years and with manga still going strong with no sign of ending, I've decided to fill the wait with fanfiction.
And since Naruto was chasing Sakura, I've simply looked for the stories that centered around these two.
One of the first stories was a behemoth of a story, a 63 chapter Truth unfolds in Wave, that was so incredibly well written that it could easily replace the actual story. And with that I became NaruSaku fan.
I then turned to manga to see where the whole thing was going... and I kind of missed the childishness in Naruto, he was still goofy, but as Sakura correctly predicted in the first chapter, we'll all kind of miss the old bratty, larger than life Naruto.
But with war arc things turned for the worse, first of all, the whole thing started to drag, and then out of nowhere, the end was announced, with only 6 or so chapters left.
And I knew right then and there that things will end badly.
On one hand we've had this war going on for soooo long, and now in just handful of chapters we'd get a whole NvS fight + presumably an epilogue with Naruto either dying or becoming hokage. But while I was expecting a bad ending, nothing could prepare me for the one we've got. All the reason why it's bad were already mentioned so I won't go through them again, but with The Last being a biggest insult in my book.
And with that, I've completely lost interest in the continuation of the story. But to be honest, kids have never really interested me that much.
Even if they've went with NS, I kind of doubt I would really follow the story.
Would have preferred, if it revolved around adventures of grown Konoha 11, with their kids taking a backseat to the main the story, than what I hear is out-there now.
So no, the pairings were not the reason I've stopped caring, I blame the execution of the ending and retcon that was The Last, for this.